The Philadelphia District Attorney’s (DA) office announced during a press conference Monday that they were charging a 17-year-old the FBI arrested Friday for his involvement in a potential terrorist plot, according to ABC News.
The FBI said Monday that they believed the teen was in communication with Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad (KTJ), an organization affiliated with al-Qa’ida, and had been in the process of creating a list of potential targets, but did not limit his list to just Philadelphia, according to NBC News. Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner informed the public that the defendant, who has not been named, is facing multiple charges as a juvenile, but that the office confirmed that they are making the case to try him as an adult, ABC News reported. (RELATED: Teen Arrested AT Denver Airport Was Trying To Join ISIS In The Middle East, Officials Say)
“The young man who is under arrest is — was an aspiring terrorist who was not merely thinking, but was doing things that are deeply disturbing and presented a grave danger to everyone,” Krasner said during the press conference, ABC News reported.
A fighter from the al-Qaida group in the Levant, Al-Nusra Front, carrying the movements flag climbs down from a destroyed building near the front line with Syrian government soldiers in Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus on September 22, 2014. (Photo by RAMI AL-SAYED/AFP via Getty Images)
Krasner said that the teenager was being charged with several counts, including “weapons of mass destruction, criminal conspiracy, arson, causing or risking catastrophe, attempt to commit criminal mischief, possession of an instrument of crime, and reckless endangerment of another person,” according to ABC News. The suspect’s family reportedly had no knowledge of the incident and, due to the defendant’s age, he is not going to be tried in federal court, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to NBC News.
The FBI closed off a section of the city Friday night during a raid of the suspects house and several individuals were reportedly taken away in handcuffs, according to 6abc Action News. FBI Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire told reporters that the defendant had enough material to create a functioning incendiary device, according to ABC News.
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