FBI says teen was planning Islamic State-inspired hammer and knife attack on Jews, Christians and LGBTQ+ people
The FBI said on Friday that it thwarted an alleged plot to carry out a New Year’s Eve terrorist attack on a grocery store and restaurant in North Carolina in support of the Islamic State (IS).
Christian Sturdivant, 18, of Mint Hill – a town outside Charlotte – was arrested on 31 December as he was being released from a special medical facility. He was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the US attorney for the western district of North Carolina, Russ Ferguson, said at a press conference on Friday morning.
Investigators believe that Sturdivant, a US citizen, had been planning the attack for about a year, after a search of his home on 29 December uncovered knives and hammers under his bed, as well as detailed notes on the planned massacre. Ferguson said the suspect’s notes revealed that he wanted to target Jews, Christians and LGBTQ+ individuals, and planned to die a “martyr” by attacking police officers that arrived at the scene.
Sturdivant’s radicalization took place online on IS websites, authorities said, and he was found to be the holder of a TikTok account that made multiple posts in support of the designated terrorist organization. He then reached out to pledge allegiance on an IS site, unwittingly doing so to an undercover New York police department agent.
