CHICAGO (CBS) – Recently uncovered court documents show that a 15-year-old boy from Chicago is accused of conspiring with two other teenagers – one from Maine and one from Kentucky – to attack at least one Shiite mosque in Chicago and commit mass murder.
The discoveries come in a month 18-year-old Xavier Pelky of Waterville, Maine, has been arrested on federal charges the presence of unregistered explosive devices.
Investigators said in February they conducted a search warrant at Pelka’s home in Maine and found improvised explosive devices consisting of fireworks and sharp metal objects such as staples, pins and hairpins.
An FBI technician on the blast determined that the items were designed to increase the amount of shrapnel when they were blown up. Pelki claimed that he had only “fireworks” in his apartment and he glued them together for a “bigger boom”, but did not answer why they were full of staples and other sharp objects, investigators said.
At the time of Pelka’s arrest, prosecutors said he believed he planned to come to Chicago to attack houses of worship. Prosecutors said Pelki was talking to two minors about his plans to attack a mosque and possibly a synagogue.
According to a recent FBI testimony, the two minors Pelky was dating were a 15-year-old from Chicago and a 17-year-old from Kentucky.
A few days before the search of Pelka’s house, FBI agents also issued a search warrant for the house of a 15-year-old boy in Chicago, and during the search, the boy told agents he had contacted Pelka, who identified himself online as “Abdullah”. summer teen via Instagram and other chat options.
The 15-year-old told the FBI that the three planned to attack a Shiite mosque in the Chicago area in late March, during the “spring break”, and that Pelki was going to buy weapons and ammunition and also built a bomb in order to “recruit more people”. .
According to the testimony, the 15-year-old said they planned to enter the mosque “and separate the adults from the children and then kill the adults”.
“If they had not clashed with law enforcement at the time, they would have continued to move to another Shiite mosque or Jewish synagogue and carried out the same plan. They had no escape plan, but their plan ended up being shot by law enforcement, ”the oath said.
FBI agents confiscated several weapons from the 15-year-old boy’s home, including a Remington Pump rifle, swords, knives, a bow and arrow; along with several homemade ISIS flags.
FBI
When the FBI raided Pelka’s house six days later, he admitted that he was the one behind the Abudul account who had been in contact with two other teenagers, and agents found three improvised explosive devices in a backpack in his bedroom, as well as two hand-painted ISIS flags.
Two days after a search of Pelka’s home, the FBI also raided the home of a 17-year-old boy in Kentucky who confessed to talking to Pelka and another teenager and said he wanted to die a martyr “during a fight in the cause of Allah.”
He also said Pelki was talking about gathering materials to make explosives for the attack.
The pellets are kept unsecured. It is unclear whether two other teenagers will be charged.
