Idaho man sentenced in ISIS plot to attack churches
An Idaho man has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for planning to attack churches in his hometown on behalf of the Islamic State (ISIS), according to federal prosecutors. He was arrested a day before the attacks were to begin.
Alexander Scott Mercurio, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, was sentenced Tuesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho. He was sentenced for attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Mercurio began compiling and distributing pro-ISIS material online in early 2023. He wanted to travel overseas to support the group but lacked the resources, so he began planning an attack in the United States, prosecutors said.
He selected churches in Coeur d’Alene, in northern Idaho, and planned to begin the attacks on April 7, 2024, before the end of Ramadan, according to the criminal complaint.
“The targets will be the various churches in my town,” he wrote to an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) employee in March 2024.
In messages to an FBI informant, he described plans to kill as many people as possible at one church, set it on fire and move on to others until he was killed. He also planned to attack his father with a metal pipe, handcuff him and take his firearms for use in the attack.
Days before the planned attack, an FBI informant helped him record a pledge of allegiance in a hotel room. He posed holding a knife in front of an ISIS flag that the informant had supplied, according to the complaint. He sent an audio recording pledging allegiance to the group on April 6.
The FBI arrested him that day, before he could attack his father and obtain the guns. Agents searching his home found butane canisters, lighters, handcuffs, a metal pipe, a knife, a machete and an ISIS flag. They also found rifles and handguns belonging to his father in a locked bedroom closet.
In addition to the prison sentence, the judge ordered Mercurio to remain under court supervision for the rest of his life after his release.
The post Idaho man sentenced in ISIS plot to attack churches appeared first on BNO News.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
