Idaho teen arrested and accused of planning to kill churchgoers in the name of ISISAlexander Scott Mercurio, 18, was arrested in the early hours of Saturday, a day before prosecutors say he planned to carry out his attack.
April 9, 2024, 7:18 AM EDT
By Patrick Smith
An Idaho teenager was arrested and accused of planning to kill churchgoers during services across his hometown in the name of the Islamic State group, authorities have said.
Alexander Scott Mercurio, 18, from Coeur d’Alene, was arrested early Saturday as part of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation, a day before prosecutors say he planned to carry out his attack.
He is accused of "attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS," according to a federal criminal complaint filed in Idaho on Monday.
The FBI said he was actively planning to attack churches Sunday in Coeur d'Alene, a town 30 miles east of Spokane, using "weapons, including knives, firearms, and fire," a statement said. The attack was timed to coincide with the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, investigators said. ...
"Stop close by the church, equip the weapon(s) and storm the temple, kill as many people as possible before they inevitably disperse/scatter, then burn the temple to the ground and flee the scene," Mercurio allegedly wrote. He said he would then repeat this for all 21 churches in the town, according to prosecutors. ...
The FBI said it became aware of Mercurio during an investigation into a fundraising network that uses cryptocurrency and other platforms to support ISIS in Syria and its Afghan affiliate ISIS Wilayat Khorasan, known as ISIS-K.
That investigation found that Mercurio and at least three other suspects who were not identified in the documents were financially supporting someone only referred to as "Individual 2" in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave that has faced widespread destruction from six months of the Israel-Hamas war.
According to the FBI's testimony, Mercurio was in an encrypted group chat group with fellow ISIS supporters. Investigators also found on his school-issued laptop documents relating to ISIS ideology but also far-right terrorists such as mass murderer Anders Breivik. ...
Read more at NBC News
