Feds: Hamden man tried to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS

Between August and October 2019, McCormick repeatedly told others he wanted to travel to Syria and fight for ISIS, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

HAMDEN — A local man who expressed support for the terrorist organization ISIS tried to travel to the Middle East to join the organization, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.

Kevin Iman McCormick, 29, pleaded guilty in Bridgeport on Thursday to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, the U.S. attorney’s office said. McCormick is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley on April 6 and faces up to 20 years in prison at that time.

Between August and October 2019, McCormick repeatedly told others he wanted to travel to Syria and fight for ISIS, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

In one October 2019 conversation, he was quoted by the office as saying, “I gotta fight bro, because those people, Abu Masa and ISIL (an alternative name for ISIS), they fought for me bro, I know it, I can feel it, in my heart. So it’s my time to fight … It just is what it is bro, it’s just my — it’s just my time to go bro.”

When asked about his destination, he allegedly responded, “I don’t know, I don’t know bro – it’s gotta be like Syria. Where ISIL is at … whichever place is easiest, whatever place I can get there the fastest, the quickest, the easiest, and where I can have a rifle and I can have some people bro. That’s what I need, I need a rifle and I need some people, I need Islamic law, I need, that’s what I need, because if I have these things, it’s gonna to be very hard to kill me.”

On Oct. 12, 2019, McCormick tried to board a flight from Connecticut to Jamaica but was prevented from doing so by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. He then told a person he wanted to travel to Syria from Jamaica to join ISIS, adding he hoped to acquire weapons, the office said.

Seven days later, on Oct. 19, 2019, McCormick filmed himself pledging allegiance to ISIS and its then-leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. That same day, he also bought a plane ticket from Toronto, Canada, to Amman, Jordan, the office said.

McCormick was arrested on Oct. 21, 2019, after he traveled to a small private airport in Connecticut to board a plane bound for Canada, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. He has been detained since his arrest.