What We Know About Cesar Sayoc, the Mail Bombing Suspect

Cesar Sayoc Jr.Credit Broward County Sheriff’s Office

AVENTURA, Fla. — A South Florida man with a history of criminal convictions was arrested Friday morning in connection to the string mail bombs sent to prominent Democrats this week.

Here is what is known about the suspect:

• A law enforcement official identified the suspect as Cesar Sayoc Jr., 56, of Aventura, Fla, just north of Miami.

• Mr. Sayoc, a registered Republican, has a lengthy criminal history in Florida dating back to 1991 that includes felony theft, drug and fraud charges, as well as being accused of threatening to use a bomb, public records show.

• His criminal record from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement indicates that at the time of his last arrest in 2015, he was 5-foot-11 and 215 pounds. He has brown eyes, black hair and a scar on his left arm, the records said, and was born in New York. The records listed Mr. Sayoc’s occupation as “manager.”

• According to a 2012 bankruptcy petition filed in Miami, Mr. Sayoc resided at the time at his mother’s home. “Lives w/mom,” a handwritten note on the petition said. “Has no furniture.”

• The suspect was arrested at about 11 a.m. in the parking lot of a shopping center in Plantation, Fla., west of Fort Lauderdale.

• Patrol cars shut down surrounding streets, leaving rows of businesses inaccessible for part of the morning. A white van that was covered in stickers was towed away from the scene in the late morning.

• The Department of Justice has scheduled a news conference for 2:30 p.m.

• Two more of the explosive devices were found on Friday: one addressed to Senator Cory Booker and the other to James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence. Read more about who has been targeted here.

A Florida resident described seeing a van that appeared similar to the one towed away

The suspect’s white van reminded David Cypkin and his girlfriend, who until recently lived in Aventura, Fla., of a van often parked in the parking lot of a local strip mall, the Shoppes at the Waterways. Mr. Cypkin shared photographs with The New York Times that showed a van covered with a number of stickers bearing the image of President Trump and at least one anti-CNN sticker.

Mr. Cypkin, 39, said he lived near the mall and would see the van in the early morning when he walked his dog.

“It struck me because of the crazy conspiratorial stickers covering the windows,” said Mr. Cypkin, a documentary film producer and editor. “It was unsettling, and also it seemed to be occupied. Sometimes the door would be ajar or a window would be open, which indicated to me that maybe somebody was living in the van.”

“I never wanted to get too close,” he added, though he saw the owner at least once. He described him as an older white man.

Mr. Cypkin shared a cellphone picture he took of the van in the early morning of Dec. 31. The photo shows a van similar to the one seen in footage being picked up by law enforcement this morning. He said he called the F.B.I. after learning of the arrest.

On Friday, his girlfriend saw the van on the TV news and sent him a screen shot: “Is this the van from the Waterways?”