Federal authorities in the United States have accused an 18-year-old of plotting to carry out a \u201cpotential terrorist attack\u201d on New Year\u2019s Eve in the suburban town of Mint Hill, North Carolina, outside Charlotte.<\/p>\n
On Friday, officials from the US Attorney\u2019s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified the suspect as Mint Hill resident Christian Sturdivant, a US citizen. The targets of Sturdivant\u2019s alleged plans were a grocery store and a fast-food restaurant in Mint Hill.<\/p>\n
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\u201c\u200aCountless lives were saved here,\u201d US Attorney Russ Ferguson said at a news conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn New Year\u2019s Eve, everyone is at the grocery store. We\u2019re all buying the things we need to celebrate. And we could have had a significant, significant loss of life, a significant injury here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferguson explained that Sturdivant was arrested on New Year\u2019s Eve, the day of his planned attack. The 18-year-old has been charged with \u201cattempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation\u201d, and he made his first court appearance on Friday.<\/p>\n
Sturdivant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to Ferguson.<\/p>\n
But during his news conference, Ferguson, an appointee of President Donald Trump, appeared to voice frustration with the court system for failing to approve an earlier effort to detain Sturdivant on mental health grounds.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aI think it is notable that, as part of their efforts, the FBI took Mr Sturdivant to a state magistrate judge to try to have him involuntarily committed,\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that was because he had threatened not only other people\u2019s lives, but in the process said that he planned to die by a policeman shooting him. So he had threatened other people\u2019s lives and self-harm, but the state magistrate judge denied involuntary commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities later specified that the hearing with the magistrate judge took place on Monday, days before his arrest. Sturdivant, they said, turned 18 last month.<\/p>\n
Authorities detail arrest<\/p>\n
During Friday\u2019s news conference, officials said this week\u2019s arrest was part of a multiyear effort to investigate Sturdivant, whom they described as a \u201cprolific social media user\u201d.<\/p>\n
The suspect had previously been an employee at a local Burger King in North Carolina.<\/p>\n
James Barnacle, the special agent in charge of the FBI\u2019s North Carolina field office, said the suspect first came to the bureau\u2019s attention in 2022, after he tried to contact the armed group ISIL (ISIS) through social media.<\/p>\n
The US considers ISIL a foreign terrorist organisation and has conducted numerous military operations<\/a> in the Middle East \u2014 and one recently in Nigeria<\/a> \u2014 on the premise of combating the group.<\/p>\n Barnacle alleged that Sturdivant received instructions to knock on doors and attack people with hammers, but his initial attempts were thwarted by his family. He was about 14 years old at the time.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aNo charges were filed at that time,\u201d Barnacle said. \u201cHe underwent psychological care, of which I don\u2019t know the details.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, in December, Barnacle said the FBI discovered that Sturdivant had returned to social media and posted threatening messages.<\/p>\n He had also allegedly made contact with two undercover officers: one from the New York Police Department and the second a covert agent with the FBI.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin just a few days, Sturdivant direct-messaged the online covert employee with a picture of two hammers and a knife,\u201d Barnacle said. \u201cThe message was significant since in recent years an ISIS propaganda magazine promoted the use of knives to conduct terrorist attacks in Western countries.\u201d<\/p>\n Barnacle added that later messages contained a loyalty oath to ISIL and a request for help obtaining firearms.<\/p>\n \u201cThe JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task Force] collected evidence showing he turned his back on his country and his fellow citizens by pledging allegiance to ISIS with the intent of becoming a martyr,\u201d Barnacle said of the 18-year-old.<\/p>\n \u201cWe allege Sturdivant was willing to sacrifice himself by committing a terrorist attack, using knives and a hammer to support the murder, torture and extreme violence that ISIS represents.\u201d<\/p>\n An FBI search of his home reportedly recovered hammers and knives hidden under Sturdivant\u2019s bed, as well as notes allegedly detailing his attack plans.<\/p>\n \u201cI could tell you the FBI had 24\/7 surveillance on this subject, all hours of night, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve,\u201d Barnacle said. He described the suspect\u2019s targets as \u201cJews, Christians and LGBTQ individuals\u201d.<\/p>\n FBI Director Kash Patel quickly promoted Sturdivant\u2019s arrest on social media, praising his bureau and its partners for \u201cundoubtedly saving lives\u201d.<\/p>\n The arrest comes one year after a pickup truck driver intentionally rammed his vehicle down Bourbon Street, New Orleans\u2019s famed entertainment district, in a deadly New Year\u2019s Day attack.<\/p>\n Fourteen people were killed, and authorities recovered an ISIL flag in the truck.<\/p>\n But critics have questioned the use of undercover agents to make \u201cterrorism-related\u201d arrests with some defence lawyers arguing that agents have encouraged suspects to make incriminating statements or take actions they otherwise would not have.<\/p>\n Lawyers for the 18-year-old have yet to publicly comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal authorities in the United States have accused an 18-year-old of plotting to carry out a \u201cpotential terrorist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[30,188,32,12,529,49,286,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-670361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-police","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-us-canada","15":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115829114445939781","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}