A radicalized Ohio man has been arrested for allegedly planning a terror attack during Cleveland’s Fourth of July parade, authorities said Monday.
Demetrius Nathaniel Pitts, 48, was arrested Sunday after detailing his desire to join a terrorist organization — al Qaeda — and recruit others to kill as many Americans as possible, especially military personnel and their families, as well as federal and local law enforcement agents, FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen Anthony told reporters.
Pitts, aka Abdur Raheem Rahfeeq, who has been charged in a federal complaint with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, was collared after allegedly telling an undercover FBI agent that he planned to launch a terror attack at Cleveland’s Voinovich Park, where city officials were scheduled to hold a holiday fireworks show.
Pitts also conducted surveillance of other potential targets, including a nearby US Coast Guard station and federal buildings in downtown Cleveland, Anthony said.
“His Facebook posts, quite frankly, were disturbing,” Anthony told reporters during a press conference. ”They included verbiage that had words to the effect: ‘We, as Muslims, need to start training like this every day, we to know how to shoot guns, throw hand grenades, hand-to-hand combat.’”
FBI investigators learned that Pitts — who has prior convictions for aggravated robbery, domestic assault and carrying a concealed weapon — was espousing his support for al Qaeda sometime last year, as well as “violent intentions” toward US armed forces, including a desire to mutilate their bodies, Anthony said.
In May, Pitts relocated from a town outside Cincinnati to the greater Cleveland area and continued to express his radical ideology and desire to commit violence against the United States, Anthony said. During a meeting with an undercover agent last week, Anthony said, Pitts plainly laid out his intentions.
“I did tell myself that their holiday is coming up, the Fourth of July, Independence Day,” Anthony said, mimicking Pitts. “What would hit them in the core?”
Pitts further detailed his plans during a subsequent meeting Sunday, again telling an undercover agent that he wanted to inflict maximum damage during the city’s holiday parade, including detonating a van filled with explosives and targeting St. John’s Cathedral. Pitts also considered building remote-controlled toy cars packed with explosives and shrapnel to be doled out to youngsters, authorities said.
Pitts, originally of Philadelphia, also expressed a desire to carry out a separate terror attack in that city, Anthony said.
Pitts was expected to appear before a federal judge later Monday. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
