Minneapolis hair salon bomber gets 5 years in prison, hefty restitution bill

A man who set off a bomb at a Minneapolis hair salon in 2022 and returned a year later to lob a brick through the shop’s window was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison.

Michael Allen Francisco, 59, of Minneapolis, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis after pleading guilty to malicious use of explosive materials following a lengthy federal investigation that included forensic analysis and an eventual admission during a search of his home in March.

Along with his time in prison, Francisco’s sentence includes three years’ supervised release and an order to pay more than $172,000 in restitution to his victims for the damage he inflicted on the Bryn Mawr neighborhood shop.

According to a sworn affidavit from a special agent assigned to the FBI’s joint terrorism task force:

Video images from a Ring device on Nov. 20, 2022, showed Francisco placing an explosive on the window of the Studio 411 Salon, at 411 S. Cedar Lake Road, and fleeing in a vehicle before it detonated at about 2:50 a.m.

He was also identified in video images throwing a landscaping brick through a window at the salon around 1:25 a.m. on Nov. 6, 2023.

In late March, the FBI and Minneapolis police searched Francisco’s home and seized a black jacket suspected to have been worn by Francisco during the brick-throwing incident. Agents also found multiple explosive components, including suspected “energetic powders and fuses,” a .32-caliber revolver with ammunition and suspected methamphetamine.

In interviews with law enforcement during the search, Francisco confessed to lighting the fuse on the explosive device that damaged Studio 411 and throwing the brick at the salon’s window a year later.

Publicly available court records have not revealed why Francisco targeted the salon.

The FBI reviewed police records and found that Francisco was linked to another case of possessing an explosive device: In March 2023, Minneapolis police found Francisco trespassing near an abandoned lumber yard in northeast Minneapolis. He left the area on foot, but officers noticed an unoccupied pickup truck nearby with its engine running and doors unlocked.