Man charged with plotting shooting at a New York Jewish center on anniversary of Oct. 7 Hamas attack
NEW YORK (AP) — A Pakistani man was arrested in Canada this week for plotting a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the latest conflict in the Middle East, federal authorities announced Friday.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Muhammad Shahzeb Khan had attempted to travel from Canada, where he lives, to New York City with the “stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible.”
The 20 year-old, who is also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was apprehended on Sept. 4 and charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to the terror group, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.
“As I said to Canada’s Minister of Public Safety yesterday, we are deeply grateful to our Canadian partners for their critical law enforcement actions in this matter,” Garland said in a statement. “Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack.”
It’s unclear if Khan has a lawyer. There is no listing for the case in the online federal court system. Edward Kim, a spokesperson for the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office, which is handling the case, declined to respond to follow-up questions, including where Khan is being held and when will be brought to the U.S. to face the charges. He deferred to Canadian authorities, who didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
U.S. authorities said Khan began sharing ISIS propaganda videos and expressing his support for the terror group in social media posts and communications with others on an encrypted messaging app last November.
In conversations with two undercover law enforcement officers, he confirmed that he and another ISIS supporter based in the U.S. had been planning to carry out attacks against Jewish centers in America and needed to obtain AR-style assault rifles, ammunition and other materials, according to the Justice Department.
Khan also provided details about how he would cross the border from Canada into the U.S. and that he was considering conducting the attacks on either the Oct. 7 anniversary or on Oct. 11, which is the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, authorities said.
Then on Aug. 20, he told the undercover officers that he had settled on targeting New York City because of its sizeable Jewish population and sent a photograph of the specific area inside of a Jewish center where he planned to carry out the attack, according to the Justice Department.
Using three separate vehicles, Khan began travelling to the U.S. but was stopped around Ormstown, a town in the Canadian province of Quebec that is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the U.S. border, federal authorities said.