Brooklyn Man Arrested in Fatal Bombing That Police Say Missed Its Target

CreditCreditDave Sanders for The New York Times

Victor Kingsley wanted revenge against the police, law enforcement authorities said, but he had the wrong address.

F.B.I. agents arrested Mr. Kingsley, 37, at his home in Brooklyn on Wednesday, in a bombing last July that killed a 73-year-old landlord in Queens. He faces charges of using a weapon of mass destruction and transporting explosive material.

According to a federal criminal complaint unsealed after his arrest, Mr. Kingsley had intended the bomb for a police officer he believed lived at the duplex on 222nd Street in Queens when he left it on July 25.

No officer lived there, and the complaint said the bomb, made with materials Mr. Kingsley purchased online, exploded three days later when the landlord, George Wray, opened it while visiting the property. Mr. Wray suffered second-degree burns over 80 percent of his body when the device blew up in his hands. He died on Aug. 1.

The bombing was part of a broader attempt by Mr. Kingsley to retaliate against officers from the 67th Precinct who arrested him in January 2014 for carrying a stun gun, the police said. The charges were eventually dismissed, but Mr. Kingsley held a grudge.

An F.B.I. special agent, Lawrence C. Schmutz, said in an affidavit filed with the complaint that Mr. Kingsley had conducted several searches to determine where officers from the precinct lived, and called phone numbers linked to the addresses to determine their whereabouts.

Even after the botched bombing attempt, Mr. Kingsley continued to buy materials online, according to the complaint. John Miller, the police deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, said some materials were found inside Mr. Kingsley’s home on Wednesday.

The bomb contained a nine-volt battery, a battery case holder, an initiator and a clothespin with screws in it, according to the complaint. It was packed in a foot-long mailing tube and filled with flash powder, a low-grade explosive that Mr. Kingsley made with aluminum powder and potassium chlorate.

After the explosion, investigators recovered the package label, which was addressed to “Mac,” and listed a return address that turned out to be the 67th Precinct station house.

A postal worker said she noticed the package on July 25 on her regular route. She had seen it on the top step wrapped in a yellow plastic bag with a Forever stamp affixed to it, though it had not been delivered by the Postal Service. The next day, it had been moved to a lower step. Hours before Mr. Wray picked it up, she said, she had seen it on the ground near the mailbox.

Sean Piccoli contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 21 of the New York edition with the headline: Arrest After a Fatal 2017 Package Bomb. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe