FBI Arrest Man Planning Terrorist Attack
MILWAUKEE — The FBI arrested a Milwaukee man this week who they allege was was planning a mass shooting at a local Masonic temple, according to an FBI press release.
Samy Mohamed Hamzeh was charged with possessing machine guns and a silencer. Documents released by the FBI show that Hamzeh originally wanted to plan a shooting in the West Bank, but refocused his efforts on Milwaukee due to logistical and financial issues.
According to the FBI criminal complaint, Hamzeh wanted to commit a domestic act of violence in Milwaukee. The FBI says Hamzeh targeted a Masonic for his planned assault.
The suspect said his planned act of violence would “be known all over the world…The people will be scared and the operations will increase.”
“If I got out, after killing thirty people, I will be happy 100%”, the FBI reports Hamzeh said.
Hamzeh went into detail to the confidential sources about how he wanted the shooting at the Masonic temple to unfold:
“One of us will stay at the door at the entrance and lock the door down, he will be at the main door down, two will get to the lift up, they will enter the room, and spray everyone in the room. The one who is standing downstairs will spray anyone he finds. We will shoot them, kill them and get out. We will walk and walk, after a while, we will be covered as if it is cold, and we’ll take the covers off and dump them in a corner and keep on walking, as if nothing happened, as if everything is normal. But one has to stand on the door, because if no one stood at the door, people will be going in and out, if people came in from outside and found out what is going on, everything is busted.”
“Hamzeh devised a detailed plan to commit a mass shooting intended to kill dozens of people. He also said that he wanted this mass shooting to be ‘known the world over,'” Acting U.S. Attorney Gregory J. Haanstad said.
The suspect was arrested when he tried buying machine guns and silencers from two undercover FBI agents.
