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A Pakistani man living in Canada faces up to 20 years in prison for allegedly planning a mass shooting in New York in support of Islamic State, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, is accused of plotting an attack on a Jewish center in Brooklyn on the first anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel, which triggered the current conflict in the Middle East, federal authorities said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, arrested Khan on Wednesday in Ormstown, Quebec, south of the city of Montreal.
RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme said in a statement, "This planned antisemitic attack against Jewish people in the U.S. is deplorable and there is no place for such ideological and hate-motivated crime in Canada."
U.S. authorities said Khan began sharing Islamic State, or IS, propaganda and showing support for the group on social media and an encrypted messaging app in November.
Khan discussed with two undercover officers the idea of starting a "real offline cell" of IS to attack "Israeli Jewish Chabads" or community centers in the United States.
He mentioned needing AR-style rifles, ammunition, hunting knives and other materials for the attacks, the Justice Department said.
He also planned to cross the border from Canada and considered timing the attack with either the October 7 anniversary or October 11, which is the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.
On August 20, Khan provided undercover officers a photo of the specific spot in a Jewish center where he planned to carry out the attack, the Justice Department said.
Khan targeted New York City because he said it has "the largest Jewish population in America," prosecutors said.
His online messages described the Brooklyn site as "the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jews' world headquarters."
A representative for Chabad-Lubavitch, a prominent Hasidic Jewish movement based in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood, did not comment on the report Friday.
Authorities said Khan started his journey to the U.S. on the morning of September 4 from the Toronto area. He traveled in a car with other passengers, changing vehicles near Napanee and around Montreal before being stopped near Ormstown, about 12 miles from the U.S. border.
Khan intended to travel from Canada to New York City with the "goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, using another acronym for the terrorist group.
Khan, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was arrested on September 4 and charged with attempting to provide material support to Islamic State.
Garland said in a statement, "Jewish communities - like all communities in this country - should not have to fear being targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack."
It is unclear if Khan has legal representation or where he is being held in Canada. Canadian authorities have said he will appear in the Superior Court of Justice in Montreal on September 13.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.