U.S. Attorney: 18-Year-Old Charged with Planning ISIS Attack in N.C. Disclosed His Plan to Undercover Agent to ‘Do Jihad Soon’

EXCERPT:

FERGUSON: “The defendant here is an 18-year-old named Christian Sturdivant, he’s been planning this attack for about a year, but he's been planning an attack for far longer than that. He was planning this attack in support of ISIS, and we have charged him with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, that organization being, of course, ISIS. Now, this is still very much a active investigation. We had to act quickly here to protect the public, so we are light on details, but we will tell you as much as we can, and Mr. Barnacle will probably tell you more than I will about those charges, but I thought I would give you an overview of what’s in the federal complaint and the charges that we charged. So, Mr. Sturdivant started on the internet. He started reading ISIS material, started going to ISIS websites, making TikTok videos, and eventually reached out to what he thought was a member of ISIS, in reality was an undercover agent with NYPD in New York. He pledged his allegiance to ISIS with that undercover agent and he disclosed his plans to 'do jihad soon.' He then met a second undercover with the FBI, who he also thought was an ISIS participant, and he started to be very specific with his plans. He talked with that undercover agent, again, who he thought was ISIS. He talked about where he was planning to do this attack, which was at a grocery store and a fast food restaurant in Mint Hill, places that we go every day and don’t think that we may be harmed. He talked about what means he would use to kill innocent people. He said he was going to wear a kevlar vest and attack people with knives and hammers. And, of course, he talked about when he was going and carry out this attack, which was New Year’s Eve, a time when American life is on full display, right, we’re all out there in crowds, celebrating all that has happened this year, all that is to come that we are so proud of, and that is when he planned this attack to attack that American way of life.”