TN arsonist agrees to plead guilty to bombing offices of historic civil rights center

A Tullahoma white supremacist is ready to plead guilty to a million-dollar firebombing that destroyed the administrative offices of a historic East Tennessee civil rights and social justice center in 2019.

Regan D. Prater, who authorities said aligns himself with Nazi causes, drove from his home to the New Market area Highlander Center on March 29, 2019, broke into the main administrative building and lit a sparkler bomb, federal records state.

The bomb went off, setting a fire that destroyed the building and caused some $1.3 million in damage, federal court records state.

Prater, 28, has agreed to plead guilty in federal court in Knoxville to malicious use of fire and to trying to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization — defined in this case by the federal government as the Iran-backed Hezbollah, or Hizballah.

No court date has been set yet for Prater to appear before U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan. The judge will impose a sentence.

Read more: WBIR