Authorities in Arizona announced Wednesday that a grand jury has charged a teenager on terrorism charges, claiming he intended to assault attendees of the Phoenix Pride Festival.
According to a statement from the county attorney’s office, the 17-year-old was indicted by a Maricopa County grand jury on one count of terrorism and one count of conspiracy to conduct terrorism, all of which are felonies.
Prosecutors claimed that the defendant, who will face adult charges, obtained ingredients to create an explosive device.
Prosecutors claimed that the teenager ordered the ingredients he needed to create an improvised explosive device after discussing them in online chat groups between November 1 and May 31.
Prosecutors claimed that the teenager talked about his plan to create a “unstable explosive that can propel shrapnel and other dangerous items outward, causing serious injury or death to people in the area.”
The indictment names the defendant as well as other “unnamed co-conspirators” and “Juvenile A.” The previous weekend was the Pride Festival.
According to the indictment, the suspect’s motivation was to “further the goals” of the Islamic State organization, commonly referred to as ISIS.
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According to prosecutors, he is being detained on a $1 million cash-only bond. Whether he had hired a lawyer was not immediately apparent. On Wednesday evening, no one from the county public defender’s office could be reached for comment right away.
Rachel Mitchell, the county attorney, expressed gratitude to the law enforcement partners and investigators.
“It takes a tremendous amount of cooperative work by law enforcement to develop a lead, locate a suspect, interrupt an attack, and make an arrest before a tragedy could happen,” she stated.
