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Khalil Abu Rayyan, 21, told an undercover FBI employee he wanted to shoot up a church, a criminal complaint says
The FBI began monitoring Rayyan after learning he'd made violent threats
The FBI arrested a man who told an undercover FBI employee that he wanted to shoot up a Detroit-area church to show support for ISIS, according to a criminal complaint released Friday.
Khalil Abu Rayyan, 21, said he had picked a church but the plan fell apart because “my dad searched my car one day and he found everything. He found the gun and the bullets and the mask I was going to wear,” the complaint said.
The FBI charged Rayyan with being an unlawful user of a controlled substance who possessed a firearm that traveled in interstate commerce.
The complaint said he falsely said on a gun shop form that he wasn’t a marijuana user. The gun he bought in Michigan had been manufactured in Florida, the complaint said.
He is not charged with terror-related offenses.
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The FBI said agents began watching Rayyan last May after learning he had made threats to others about committing acts of terror, including killing churchgoers, in the name of ISIS, the complaint said.
Last October, Detroit police stopped his vehicle for speeding and found a .22-caliber pistol and marijuana inside the vehicle, the complaint said. He was charged with the state offenses of carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a controlled substance.
As the FBI further monitored Rayyan after that arrest, he talked online to the FBI employee about shooting up the church, bragged about owning an AK-47 and said he wanted to kill the police officer who arrested him, the complaint said.