Washington:
A teenager in suburban Chicago, who was arrested before carrying out a mass shooting plot at a Hindu temple last weekend, had been planning the attack for over two years, according to court documents exclusively accessed by NDTV. Prosecutors from the Cook County State's Attorney's Office said the suspect, Alexandros Paporakis, 19, told his coworkers at Taco Bell in Palatine that he "couldn't wait to kill Indian" people.
Though the exact intended location of Paporakis' killing plot is still under investigation, police officials in Palatine, Illinois, and FBI investigators said they believe the teenager was planning to attack a large Hindu temple in Aurora, about 40 miles west of Chicago.
How A Jammed Gun Stopped The Attack
Palatine Police Chief William Nord said a red Acura RDX registered to Paporakis entered a temple parking lot on Sunday around 12:25 pm and left less than 15 minutes later. He was seen alone inside the car around 2 pm near his home in another suburb.
Officials did not name the target, but the Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) Temple in Aurora, the area's largest temple, later informed its members of a security threat with a posting on its website. A receptionist at the temple, who did not give her name, told The New York Times on the phone that the temple was indeed the site of the thwarted attack.
The American teenager's bloody plans were foiled in time after one of his colleagues reported him to the police. Later, the Mount Prospect and Palatine police departments coordinated to locate and arrest Paporakis while he was leaving his home on Sunday afternoon, the same day prosecutors believe he was planning to execute his plans.
The White Supremacist Ideology
During searches at his home, which the man had shared with his mother for about a year, police found a rifle, multiple loaded rifle magazines and hundreds of rounds of additional rifle ammunition, a tactical vest containing body armour and a patch displaying imagery associated with white supremacist extremism, officials said.
Also found at his home were items with Nazi symbols, including swastikas, and a gas can labelled with an anti-Indian slur 'Jeet Remover'. Detectives also examined his electronic communications and a document attributed to Paporakis titled: "Why I Fought: A.K.A.: (Aurora Shooter's Manifesto)", which described Indian, Jewish and African American people as "subhumans" and outlined a plot to kill as many of them as possible, according to a court document.
Paporakis faces felony charges of making a terrorist threat and unlawfully possessing a rifle. Prosecutors have said Paporakis, a cashier at a Taco Bell, had texted a co-worker espousing white supremacist views and a plot for a potential mass shooting.
Planning Of Special Day
He had told them that Sunday would be the "special day". On Sunday, he reportedly called the co-worker to tell them that his gun had jammed at the scene and that he was fleeing, the documents said.
He also reportedly sent a video to his co-worker showing how his gun, an AR-style rifle, had failed to fire and told them that he was trying to fix the weapon so he could "retry" and that "the man that he fired at was 'certainly saved by his God today,'" the court document showed.
Paporakis had also sent the coworker an eight-page document in which he used racial slurs to describe non-white people and outlined a plot to kill as many of them as possible, according to prosecutors.
The co-worker called 911, leading to the suspect's arrest.
Court documents showed that his colleagues said on Saturday, Paporakis's behaviour had intensified, and that he told one colleague, "He couldn't wait to kill Indian people," and told another co-worker that he was planning "it" at a Hindu temple in Aurora.
The Plan Was Two Years in the Making
Court documents showed that the suspect described his persona as an ordinary white kid going to college and working. "Underneath that facade was a sociopathic white supremacist Neo-Nazi filled with hatred, fantasising about mass murder nearly every day," the document stated.
In his manifesto, the suspect described Indians as "subhumans" and said he plans to kill as many of them as possible. He wrote about how he wanted to die himself but not, "[b]efore I sacrifice myself to take revenge on the world. On the subhumans that ruined mine and so many people's lives," court document showed.
In discussing how he selected people of Indian descent as his target, Paporakis wrote, "I decided to target something that would give me pleasure to destroy."
Paporakis also wrote about studying his target through YouTube and Google Street View and that he had been planning the attack for two years in total, two months on that specific location. In his manifesto, the spectre encouraged others to follow his lead and commit a litany of violent terroristic acts.
Rise Of Anti-India Sentiments
Paporakis' arrest added to concerns about a rise in physical and verbal attacks against South Asians, especially Indians, in the United States, under the Donald Trump administration.
Earlier this month, a Hindu temple was vandalised outside Cleveland, when an unknown assailant threw a brick through a window. In September, the Department of Homeland Security came under fire after it posted a message on social media with an image of a Sikh man, urging some immigrants to self-deport. The image has since been taken down, but the department called criticism of the post "nonsensical drivel".