North Carolina: The FBI claims to have thwarted an IS-linked ‘potential terrorist attack’ on New Year’s Eve by arresting a teenager.
The 18-year-old, identified as Christian Sturdivant was allegedly inspired by the ISIS. Investigators claim that he had planned to attack a grocery store and fast food restaurant in his hometown and kill both civilians and responding police officers.
Federal agents also found handwritten plans outlining the knife and hammer attack while searching his home, as reported by India Today.
“He was preparing for jihad and innocent people were going to die…Countless lives were saved here. On New Year’s Eve, everyone is at the grocery store. We’re all buying the things we need to celebrate. And we could have had a significant, significant loss of life, a significant injury here,” reports quoted US Attorney Russ Ferguson as saying at a news conference.
Sturdivant has been charged with “attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation” and
faces up to 20 years in prison. He made his first court appearance on Friday but has not yet entered a plea on the charges.
The alleged attack would have taken place barely a year after a US citizen and Army veteran who proclaimed support for IS on social media murdered 14 people in New Orleans.
Officials said that Sturdivant had planned the attack for about a year and made contact with two undercover agents with the FBI and New York Police Department. He had believed they were affiliated with ISIS as he shared photos of his intended weapons and discussed attack plans. According to the complaint, he sent images of two hammers and a knife to the officials in December via direct messages online.
According to a Justice Department statement, FBI agents searching his home had also found a handwritten document titled “New Years Attack 2026”.— allegedly discussing plans to stab up to 20 victims and attack responding police officers. Agents seized hammers and knives from his bedroom.
The affidavit says Sturdivant had also been on the FBI radar as a minor in January 2022. Officials learned at the time that he was in contact with a suspected IS member in Europe, and received instructions to dress in black, knock on people’s doors and commit attacks with a hammer. At that time, Sturdivant set out for a neighbor’s house armed with a hammer and a knife but was restrained by his grandfather.