A 22-year-old New Jersey man has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for participating in a firebombing and a shooting at homes in Pennsylvania last year. Patrick McGovern-Allen was the subject of a Sept. 4, 2022 story here about the emergence of “violence-as-a-service” offerings, where random people from the Internet hire themselves out to perform a variety of local, physical attacks, including firebombing a home, “bricking” windows, slashing tires, or performing a drive-by shooting at someone’s residence.
McGovern-Allen, of Egg Harbor Township, N.J., was arrested Aug. 12, 2022 on an FBI warrant, which showed he was part of a group of cybercriminals who are settling scores with one another by hiring people to carry out violent attacks on their rivals.
That Sept. 2022 story about his arrest included links to two videos released on Telegram that were recorded and shared by McGovern-Allen and/or a co-conspirator as “proof” that they had carried out the attacks as hired.
The first showed two young men tossing a Molotov Cocktail at the side of a residence in Abington Township, Pa, setting it ablaze. The second featured two men with handguns unloading multiple rounds haphazardly into the first story of a house in West Chester, Pa. Fortunately in both cases, the occupants of the homes were unharmed in the attacks.
Federal prosecutors said McGovern-Allen went by the alias “Tongue” on Discord, and that in one chat he was quite explicit about his violence-as-a-service offering.
“In the chats, [Tongue] tells other Discord users that he was the person who shot K.M.’s house and that he was willing to commit firebombings using Molotov Cocktails,” the complaint against McGovern-Allen explains. “For example, in one Discord chat from March 2022, [the defendant] states ‘if you need anything done for $ lmk [“let me know”]/I did a shooting/Molotov/but I can also do things for ur entertainment.”
The chat channels that Tongue frequented have hundreds to thousands of members each, and some of the more interesting solicitations on these communities are job offers for in-person assignments and tasks that can be found if one searches for posts titled, “If you live near,” or “IRL job” — short for “in real life” job. A number of these classified ads are in service of performing “brickings,” where someone is hired to visit a specific address and toss a brick through the target’s window.
McGovern-Allen was in the news not long ago. According to a Sept. 2020 story from The Press of Atlantic City, a then 19-year-old Patrick McGovern-Allen was injured after driving into a building and forcing residents from their home.
“Police found a 2007 Lexus, driven by Patrick McGovern-Allen, 19, that had lost control and left the road, crashing into the eastern end of the 1600 building,” the story recounted. “The car was driven through the steps that provide access to the second-floor apartments, destroying them, and also caused damage to the outer wall.”
A copy of McGovern-Allen’s sentencing statement says he pleaded guilty to three criminal counts, including two for stalking, and one for the use of fire in commission of a federal felony. The judge in the case gave McGovern-Allen 160 months in prison — about 13.3 years. After completing his sentence, McGovern-Allen will be on supervised release for three years.
Brian,
Are they going after the person who requested the service? Or is that anonymous? Getting the person committing the act is one thing, but getting the person who requested it is equally responsible.
Thanks,
Completely agree. I imagine they will use him for information to reduce his sentence. At least I hope they are doing something to catch those on the other end.
Driving in a apartment complex was ”most likely” a for ur entertainment incident also. Needs a 20 yr sentence!
so many bricks completed for me ahhh
Bricking poor e-girls is nothing to be proud about, T#####.
damn i miss that guy
hmu on tele @duuuster
my name is richsadist, i did things with this guy. im also a skid
I used to have a home wi-fi network with a name that (jokingly) suggested a hitman for hire. Not anymore. Property management company politely advised me to change the name to something else.
pat was an amazing man.
What other opportunities does a young man in America have these days?
Just a friendly reminder he was not alone the other person involved was not caught this is my nephew you should no facts before casting or judging for one people have influence on other people in life this is my brother’s son very sad that he is a troubled youth and never been in trouble in his life I just hope they catch the other kid that was with him
Yes of course, your nephew is not at all responsible for his actions and was obviously influenced and brain washed by someone else who got away with it.
The good news is, your nephew will most likely come out of prison a million percent more self-aware and able to take personal responsibility than the rest of his family.
He’s right were he belongs. And hope the others involved are eventually charged.
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap!
this g cut off my pinky and took my trezor
wtf
Free Gaza, reject Israel war facts
HI Brian,
Just a heads up, your two most recent articles ‘Russian reshipping…’ and ‘.Us harbors…’ and the headers of your website, ‘about the author’, and speaking.. are giving out error “Internal Server error”.
I am leaving a message here as there’s no other way to connect.