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Federal authorities announced Friday that they've stopped a chilling ISIS-inspired terrorist attack planned for a grocery store and fast food restaurant in Mint Hill, North Carolina—a quiet Charlotte suburb that could have turned into a bloodbath.
The suspect? 18-year-old U.S. citizen Christian Sturdivant, who allegedly plotted to slaughter innocent Americans with "knives and hammers" after getting radicalized online. He even dreamed of becoming a "martyr" in the process. "He was preparing for Jihad."
“He was preparing for Jihad and innocent people were going to die,” U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson for the Western District of North Carolina bluntly stated at Friday's press conference.“He was targeting Jews, Christians and LGBTQ individuals,” Ferguson added.
Sturdivant, who slung burgers at a local Burger King, first popped up on law enforcement's radar back in January 2022, when he was just 14 years old. He was chatting on social media with an overseas ISIS operative who told him to dress in black, knock on doors, and hammer people to death. His family intervened and stopped him then, per FBI Special Agent in Charge James Barnacle.
The kid got psychological help, which it didn't, and no charges were filed.
The FBI was assured Sturdivant "no longer had access to social media." Turns out, that was a lie, they discovered the truth on December 18.
Fast forward: Sturdivant dives into ISIS websites, posts TikToks, pledges allegiance to the terror group to what he thought was an ISIS member (actually an NYPD undercover), and tells them he plans to "do jihad soon."
He then chats with an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS operative, spilling detailed plans for the attacks and even begging for guns.
Agents raid his home, find hammers and knives stashed under his bed, despite his family hiding them earlier, plus notes outlining the carnage.
Arrested on New Year's Eve as he's released from a medical facility, Sturdivant faces charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
"Without the swift action of the FBI, joint terrorism task force, New York City police department, the Mint Hill Police Department and our partners at the United States attorney’s office for the western district North Carolina, we could be announcing national tragedy. Instead, a terrorist attack was thwarted," Barnacle said.
This foiled plot hits just one year after Shamsud-Din Jabbar mowed down New Year's revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, flying an ISIS flag, killing 14 and wounding dozens more—before placing dud bombs and getting taken out by police.
Another reminder that the ISIS threat isn't going anywhere, even as these radicals try to strike on our soil. Good on law enforcement for shutting this one down before the body count started.
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The FBI was assured Sturdivant "no longer had access to social media." Turns out, that was a lie, they discovered the truth on December 18.
Fast forward: Sturdivant dives into ISIS websites, posts TikToks, pledges allegiance to the terror group to what he thought was an ISIS member (actually an NYPD undercover), and tells them he plans to "do jihad soon."
He then chats with an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS operative, spilling detailed plans for the attacks and even begging for guns.
Agents raid his home, find hammers and knives stashed under his bed, despite his family hiding them earlier, plus notes outlining the carnage.
Arrested on New Year's Eve as he's released from a medical facility, Sturdivant faces charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
"Without the swift action of the FBI, joint terrorism task force, New York City police department, the Mint Hill Police Department and our partners at the United States attorney’s office for the western district North Carolina, we could be announcing national tragedy. Instead, a terrorist attack was thwarted," Barnacle said.
This foiled plot hits just one year after Shamsud-Din Jabbar mowed down New Year's revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, flying an ISIS flag, killing 14 and wounding dozens more—before placing dud bombs and getting taken out by police.
Another reminder that the ISIS threat isn't going anywhere, even as these radicals try to strike on our soil. Good on law enforcement for shutting this one down before the body count started.
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