Credit: Spicypepper999, Wikipedia, Public Domain
The FBI arrested an eighteen-year-old Idaho teen on Saturday, April 6, 2024, alleging he was plotting a mass killing the next day at a church in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho in the name of ISIS, an Islamic extremist group, Fox News reports.
Alexander Mercurio was arrested after he revealed the details of his plot to a man at a hotel. That man turned out to be an FBI informant.
After initially researching white supremacists, Mercurio looked into ISIS and concluded he was more suited for this extremist group and actually made contact with members of ISIS detailing his plot.
According to the FBI, Mercurio had made a “ba’yah statement, pledging his allegiance to ISIS.”
The FBI stumbled upon Mercurio during their investigation of a network of ISIS supporters in the US providing financial assistance to the terrorist organization.
It’s alleged that Mercurio initially planned to assault his father, handcuff him, steal his guns, and then proceed to the church he had chosen for the attack. He further described his parents as “very Christian and conservative.”
According to the FBI’s criminal complaint, Mercurio allegedly said that he had “some kind of insatiable bloodlust for the life of these idolaters; a craving for mayhem and murder to terrorize those around me.”
Mercurio’s parents were unaware of their son’s plot. An investigation of Mercurio’s room uncovered a steel pipe, handcuffs, containers of butane, a machete and other weapons to be used as part of his plot.
According to the report, Mercurio self-radicalized with ISIS during the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.