The man suspected of igniting a bomb that went off by a NAACP office in Colorado Springs last month says the civil rights group was not the target in his attack.

On Thursday, police arrested 44-year-old Thaddeus Murphy of Colorado Springs in connection to the Jan. 6 explosion at a building that houses a local chapter of the NAACP in Colorado Springs, reports 9Wants to Know.

FBI agents said the explosive device was placed next to a gas can, although only the device exploded, not the can. The explosion was strong enough to knock items off the inside wall inside and leave singe marks against the building, but fortunately, no one was hurt.

After being taken into federal custody, Murphy admitted to the attack, but claimed that he intended to target a tax preparation company and not the NAACP. According to a criminal complaint filed on Friday, he told investigators he was trying to threaten an accountant who was withholding years of his tax records, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Murphy, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to felony theft and spent three years in a Colorado state prison, also told investigators he was taking action against the accountant because he was having financial troubles and believed the accountant had destroyed his tax records.

However, Colorado Springs NAACP President Henry Allen Jr. appears to be skeptical of Murphy's motives. He also noted there hasn't been a tax office connected to the building on South El Paso Street in nearly 20 years.

"Criminals are people that will say anything to lessen the sentence," said Allen, who serviced in the armed forces and as the El Paso County Sheriff's deputy in Colorado. "It's up to the courts on how they interpret things. It's up to the prosecutor on the federal level, if they want to take this guy as gospel."