The pedestrian bridges over Grand Central Parkway were allegedly included in the list of possible attack sites by the defendant. Photo by Tdorante10 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
A 19-year-old Pakistani American U.S. citizen was arrested Thursday and ordered to be held without bail for allegedly attempting to provide “material support or resources” to ISIS, reports TIME.
Before his arrest, Awais Chudhary had already “carefully planned, conducted reconnaissance, picked a target, and was in the process of obtaining the weapon,” said City Police Commissioner James O’Neill, according to Outlook.
Chudhary was arrested while allegedly going to pick up equipment he had ordered to carry out and record the attack.
“As alleged, Awais Chudhary planned to kill innocent civilians on behalf of ISIS and record the bloodshed in the hope of inspiring others to commit attacks,” said Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
According to ABC News, Chudhary allegedly communicated his plans to undercover law enforcement agents whom he believed were members of ISIS. He was allegedly planning to stab New Yorkers with a knife and also selected specific pedestrian overpasses to throw bombs from.
“This happened all within five days before the arrest. There’s no allegations of any communications with ISIS or its affiliates,” said defense attorney Samuel Jacobson, who also claimed the defendant is “just a kid.” “Look at the facts of a case to a real plot, who contacted an ISIS affiliate, it’s totally different.”
“He did surveillance of the areas, provided video of what he called ‘bucket bombs,’ he talked about avoiding detection in order to commit more (attacks),” said Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Algore.
Chudhary is due in court on September 13 and can face up to 20 years in prison.
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