Two Men Plead Guilty to Causing Explosion on Harvard Medical School Campus

BOSTON - Two Massachusetts men pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to conspiring to damage a building on Harvard Medical School's (HMS) campus using a large commercial firework.

Logan David Patterson, 18, of Plymouth, Mass. and Dominick Frank Cardoza, 21, of Bourne, Mass., each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to damage, by means of an explosive. U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley scheduled sentencings for Aug. 4, 2026. In November 2025, the defendants were arrested and charged.

At approximately 2:23 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2025, surveillance cameras located at Huntington Avenue and Longwood Avenue in Boston captured two males - later identified as Patterson and Cardoza - walking toward the HMS campus wearing face coverings and dark clothing. Surveillance video captured the defendants lighting what appeared to be roman candle fireworks at approximately 2:24 a.m.

At approximately 2:33 a.m., the defendants were seen climbing over a chain-link fence into a construction area surrounding the Goldenson Building and, minutes later, climbing scaffolding beside the building to access the roof. At approximately 2:45 a.m., campus police received a fire alarm alert from an explosion on the fourth floor of the Goldenson Building, which houses a research laboratory within HMS's Department of Neurobiology. It was determined that the defendants detonated a large, commercial firework inside a wooden locker in the fourth-floor research laboratory.

Subsequent security footage captured the defendants visiting the fifth floor of the building before exiting via a first-floor emergency exit and fleeing in opposite directions; removing and discarding clothing items they had worn on the HMS campus; and returning to the nearby campus of Wentworth Institute of Technology, which they were visiting for Halloween social activities.

The charge of conspiracy to damage, by means of fire or an explosive, provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Holcomb of the National Security Unit is prosecuting the case.