Man accused of planning to bomb New York City to help Daesh

NEWARK: A New Jersey man arrested after stabbing the family dog had plans to construct and use a pressure cooker bomb in New York City and, if necessary, become a martyr in support of Daesh, federal prosecutors said.

Gregory Lepsky, 20, of Point Pleasant, was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Investigators say he had praised Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in online messages.

He was arrested in February after investigators said he stabbed and threatened to kill the dog. After police arrived, investigators said Lepsky threatened to kill his mother. While searching the home, officers found a pressure cooker stored behind a roll of bubble wrap in his bedroom closet.

“Lepsky expressed regret for having tried to kill the family dog because, according to him, if he had not done so, the police would not have discovered his plan,” Tara Jerussi, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), wrote in a complaint filed on Friday.

Lepsky was ordered held without bail on Friday and given a court-appointed lawyer. He did not enter a plea, and his lawyer did not comment after the brief hearing. If convicted, the charge carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Reached by phone, Lepsky’s mother, Luda, said that the charges are “not true.”

“This is my son, I feel I am going to die,” she said.

Authorities said a search of Lepsky’s computer and social media yielded evidence he planned to detonate a bomb and fight on behalf of Daesh. An unidentified family member told investigators that Lepsky began to espouse extremist views in December.

“I linked up with some guy I met on a chat website and he wants me to join ISIS (Daesh),” Lepsky said in message to someone, FBI reported.

Law enforcement also said they found a series of instructions on how to build a pressure cooker bomb and a message forwarded by Lepsky from another Daesh supporter stating that if a Westerner could not travel to Syria to fight, “he could conduct a terrorist attack in his home country using improvised explosive devices.”

A search of his phone also found an image of a flag used by Daesh and a photo of him holding firearms with his finger making a gesture used by Daesh members and supporters, investigators said.

He said in another Facebook message that his father from Chechnya, but stopped being religious when he moved to America.

“But I want to be different,” investigators said he wrote.