After a couple of 12 months of planning, an 18-year-old was arrested on New Year’s Eve in a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, accused by federal prosecutors and the FBI of intending to hold out a terror attack utilizing knives and hammers that very same day.
Christian Sturdivant was arrested and charged with trying to supply materials assist to a international terrorist group, Russ Ferguson, US Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, introduced in a joint information convention with the FBI late Friday morning.
The teen was speaking on-line with somebody he thought was a member of the violent extremist group, ISIS, Ferguson mentioned. Instead, he was chatting with an undercover NYPD agent.
Sturdivant, a US citizen, was arrested earlier than any such plan may start on New Year’s Eve as he was being launched from a medical facility, James C. Barnacle Jr., FBI particular agent in cost, mentioned. While the teenager deliberate to hold out an attack that day, it was not tied to a selected New Year’s occasion.
Sturdivant is at the moment being held at Gaston County Jail on a federal maintain, jail data present. He faces a statutory most sentence of 20 years if convicted, Ferguson mentioned. The teen appeared in court docket for the primary time Friday; it’s unclear if he has an legal professional at the moment.
This seems to be at the least the second known alleged attack plot disrupted in the course of the New Year vacation this 12 months following a separate incident in Los Angeles, the place the FBI arrested 4 folks for allegedly working collectively on a bomb plot that was set to happen across the metropolis on New Year’s Eve.
From conversations with two undercover brokers, Ferguson mentioned it grew to become clear Sturdivant was planning to “do Jihad soon,” clearly outlining to brokers the venue for his alleged attack: an area grocery retailer and a quick meals restaurant in Mint Hill, a Charlotte suburb greater than 10 miles outdoors the town.
During a search warrant executed at Sturdivant’s residence, FBI brokers discovered hammers and knives hidden beneath his mattress, handwritten notes in regards to the alleged plot and a listing of targets together with particulars about what he’d put on throughout and the way he would execute it.
From what authorities described as a manifesto, titled “New Years Attack 2026,” investigators gathered Sturdivant was focusing on Jews, Christians and the LGBTQ group with a aim to stab “as many civilians as possible,” authorities mentioned.
The observe additionally had a bit headlined as “martyrdom op,” which described a plan to attack any regulation enforcement that responded to the attack with the intent that Sturdivant would die a martyr, the FBI mentioned.
Ferguson known as the attack “very well planned,” including Sturdivant “was preparing for Jihad and innocent people were going to die, and we were very, very fortunate they did not.”
The FBI first discovered of Sturdivant in January 2022 when he “was in contact via social media with an unidentified ISIS member overseas,” Barnacle mentioned.
That member, the FBI mentioned, directed the then 14-year-old to decorate in all black, knock on doorways and attack folks with a hammer – steering Sturdivant adopted intently earlier than a member of the family stepped in.
No prices had been filed on the time, Barnacle mentioned, and Sturdivant was referred for psychological care with no entry to social media, the FBI was advised.
Per week earlier than Christmas, the Charlotte FBI subject workplace discovered he was again on-line posting pro-ISIS TikToks beneath a pseudonym authorities verified belonged to him and a two-week investigation into Sturdivant’s actions ensued.