FBI headquarters building is seen in Washington, U.S., December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas The FBI arrested Damon Joseph, 21, on Monday, December 10, for allegedly providing support to ISIS, as well as planning to attack two synagogues in Ohio.
According to The Daily Beast, the FBI says that Joseph became radicalized online in September, prompting him to make Internet videos urging others to launch terror attacks in the West. The agency is also saying that Joseph was inspired by the Oct. 28 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh to launch a similar attack against two synagogues in Toledo.
“I admire what the guy did with the shooting, actually,” Joseph allegedly said. “I can see myself carrying out this type of operations.”
Joseph also allegedly said that Jews were “evil” and that “they got what was coming to them” in the Pittsburgh shooting.
The FBI arrested Joseph after he took possession of two firearms that he believed an undercover agent had purchased for him to carry out the attack. Joseph was barred from purchasing firearms due to a prior criminal charge.
A 23-year-old woman in Ohio was also arrested on Monday for allegedly planning an attack on a Toledo bar after it was learned she purchased bomb-making materials and had communicated with Dylann Roof, the white supremacist convicted of killing nine African-Americans at a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015. There isn’t believed to be any connections between her and Joseph.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.