A man was arrested earlier this week in Canada for plotting to carry out a mass shooting at a Jewish center in New York City, U.S. federal officials announced on Friday.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shazeb Jadoon, allegedly sought to carry out the violence in the name of the terror group ISIS to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7.
The Justice Department described Khan as a Pakistani national.
“The defendant is alleged to have planned a terrorist attack in New York City around October 7th of this year with the stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible,” Attorney General Merrick B Garland said in a statement.
“Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack.”
Khan was arrested on September 4 in Canada, per the DOJ, and was captured in the town of Ormstown, per the CBC.
Ormstown resident Elizabeth Henshaw told Radio-Canada she came home Wednesday to see a handcuffed man being detained on her front lawn, as well as a woman in handcuffs nearby.
“[The police] said it was confidential and they couldn’t tell me what was going on,” she said.
Three others were detained as part of the plot, sources told the CBC. The individual was described by the outlet as a Toronto-area man.
The alleged plotter began communicating on social media in late 2023 about his support for ISIS, and sought to target a Jewish center in the borough of Brooklyn, according to U.S. officials.
The 20-year-old sought to create an “offline cell” of ISIS supporters capable of carrying out a “coordinated assault” on “Israeli Jewish chabads,” a reference to a branch of the Orthodox Jewish community.
The plot initially targeted a different city, but later shifted focus to New York because it is home to the largest Jewish population in the country.
Officials gathered evidence on the alleged plot through the use of two undercover officers.
The alleged plotter sought to carry out the attack between October 7 and October 11, the beginning of the Jewish high holiday of Yom Kippur, according to the DOJ.
Khan is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, he could face 20 years in prison.