Police in a Chicago suburb announced Wednesday that they had thwarted a potential mass shooting, arresting a 19-year-old man who they said may have planned to target a Hindu place of worship.
Alexandros Paporakis, a Taco Bell cashier from Palatine, Illinois, faces felony charges of making a terrorist threat and unlawfully possessing weapons. Investigators believe he planned to target the largest Hindu temple in Aurora, Illinois, but the exact intended location remains under investigation. It was not immediately clear if Paporakis has legal representation.
The defendant’s co-workers told police they had received concerning digital communications from Paporakis, including a document outlining an alleged plan to carry out a mass shooting and photos of tactical gear. They said Paporakis openly identified as a white supremacist at work and told them he couldn’t wait to kill Indian people, according to prosecutors from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
The Mount Prospect and Palatine police departments coordinated to locate and arrest Paporakis while he was leaving his home on Sunday afternoon, the same say detectives believe he may have been planning to carry out an attack, Palatine police said. He had allegedly told his Taco Bell co-workers that Sunday was going to be “a special day.”
Prosecutors said Paporakis called one coworker earlier in the day Sunday, saying that his gun had jammed and he left “super fast” without being seen.
“The seriousness of this alleged threat cannot be overstated,” Palatine Police Chief William Nord said, adding that protecting places of worship is a law enforcement priority.
Prosecutors allege Paporakis sent the coworker an eight-page document titled, “Why I fought: A.K.A. (Aurora Shooter’s Manifesto),” which described Indian, Jewish and African American people as “subhumans” and outlined a plot to kill as many of them as possible, according to a court document obtained by The Associated Press.
In a search of his home, detectives recovered an AR style rifle without a serial number, loaded magazines and ammunition, a gas canister labeled with a slur aimed at South Asians, and a several items depicting Nazi symbolism, police and prosecutors said.
Paporakis allegedly described himself in the manifesto as “a sociopathic white supremacist Neo Nazi filled with hatred, fantasizing about mass murder nearly every day.”
A judge ruled Wednesday that Paporakis will remain in jail pretrial. He is next scheduled to appear in court Oct. 30.
