The FBI said Friday that it foiled a terrorist attack planned for New Year’s Eve in North Carolina.
Federal law enforcement officials announced at a press conference that Christian Sturdivant, 18, of Mint Hill, North Carolina, has been arrested and federally charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
In a press conference Friday morning, investigators from the FBI, Justice Department and partner agencies said Sturdivant was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group, or ISIS, and planned to attack a grocery store and a Burger King restaurant on New Year’s Eve in Mint Hill, a suburb on the outskirts of Charlotte. Officials said that he was an employee at Burger King, but they did not identify which grocery store they believed he planned to attack.
“We could be announcing a national tragedy. Instead, a terrorist attack was thwarted,” said James Barnacle, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Charlotte field office.
Officials said he planned this attack for about a year, but was planning an attack for “far longer.” Investigators said he spent a lot of time on the internet reading ISIS-related material and created TikTok videos about ISIS.
During a search warrant executed at Sturdivant’s home, officials found notes detailing his plan and materials he intended to use in the attack, including hammers and knives hidden under his bed, U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson of the Western District of North Carolina said. An affidavit said tactical gloves and a Kevlar vest were found in his bedroom, and a handwritten note indicated he hoped to die at the hands of police.
Sturdivant planned to target a wide swath of American society, including non-Muslim people, LGBTQ individuals, and law-enforcement and military personnel, the affidavit said.
“It was a very well-planned, thoughtful attack that he had planned, and that was fortunately foiled. Here he was preparing for jihad, and innocent people were going to die, and we were very, very fortunate they did not,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson said he wanted to attack a grocery store, because “he was looking for a high-profile place” and he “knew there would be a lot of people there.”
Sturdivant had been communicating online with undercover New York Police Department officers and FBI agents whom he believed to be members of ISIS, Ferguson said.
Sturdivant first appeared on the FBI’s radar in 2022 as a minor when he left his house dressed in all black to kill his neighbor with a hammer and a knife, but was stopped by his grandfather, Barnacle said. No charges were filed at that time. Instead, he was referred to and underwent psychological care, said Barnacle, who added that officials don’t know the details of that treatment.
Officials said Friday that the investigation of Sturdivant’s latest plot remains active.
Asked if this was a lone-wolf situation or if there is any connection to other plots foiled across the U.S. recently, officials at the press conference said they believed that Sturdivant was working alone.
In October, the FBI said that it had foiled “a potential terrorist attack” over Halloween weekend in Michigan. Federal agents arrested five people over an alleged plot to conduct an attack in the U.S. that had a connection to ISIS extremism.
And in December, federal law enforcement arrested four people in connection with an alleged plot to set off bombs in the Los Angeles area on New Year’s Eve, though it was not connected to ISIS. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that it was planned by members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, which she described as a “far-left” group.
@ NBC News
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