Idaho teen accused of plotting violence
BOISE, Idaho — An 18-year-old man planned to attack churches in an Idaho city using a metal pipe, butane fuel, a machete and, if he could get them, his father’s guns, according to federal prosecutors who charged him with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group.
Authorities said Alexander Mercurio adopted the Islamic faith against his Christian parents’ wishes and was in contact with FBI informants posing as Islamic State group supporters.
Mercurio was arrested Saturday, the day before investigators believe he planned to carry out the attack. Phone messages left for a relative and for his defense attorneys at the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington & Idaho were not immediately returned Tuesday. Mercurio did not immediately respond to an email through a jail inmate email system.
Mercurio told one informant he intended to incapacitate his father with the pipe, handcuff him and steal his guns and a car to carry out the attack in Coeur d’Alene, according to an FBI agent’s sworn statement in the case unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court.
The guns included rifles, handguns and ammunition his father kept in a locked closet, but Mercurio still planned to attack with the pipe, fire and knives if he couldn’t get the firearms, alleged the sworn statement by FBI task force officer John Taylor II.
Law enforcement moved to arrest Mercurio after he sent an audio file pledging his allegiance to the Islamic State group, the statement claimed.
If convicted, Mercurio could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. Mercurio has not yet had an opportunity to enter a plea, and he is being held in a northern Idaho jail while he awaits his first court appearance.