Overview
- Christian Sturdivant, 18, is held in federal custody in Gaston County on a federal material-support charge that carries a potential 20-year sentence.
- Officials say he communicated with an undercover NYPD officer he believed was an ISIS member, pledged allegiance, and said he would “do jihad soon.”
- Investigators say he selected a grocery store and a fast-food restaurant in Mint Hill as targets after about a year of planning and surveillance.
- A Dec. 29 search recovered two hammers, two knives, gloves, handwritten plans, and a manifesto titled “New Year’s Eve Attack” naming Jews, Christians, and LGBTQ people, with notes outlining a “martyrdom operation.”
- He was arrested Dec. 31 as he was discharged from a medical facility after a magistrate denied an FBI request for involuntary hospitalization, and officials say this was one of several New Year’s plots recently disrupted.