Palatine teen indicted for plotting mass shooting at Hindu temple in Aurora
A Palatine teen accused of plotting a mass shooting at a Hindu temple in Aurora last month has been indicted by a Cook County grand jury, prosecutors said.
Alexandros Paporakis has been indicted on one count each of making a terrorist threat and unlawful use of a weapon. He is due to be arraigned on Nov. 19, and remains in custody at the Cook County Jail while he awaits trial.
The FBI has said, on Oct. 10, Paporakis told a coworker at the Taco Bell where he worked in Arlington Heights that he planned to kill Indian people, mentioning the largest Hindu temple in Aurora.
The next say, he told his coworker he had gone to carry out his plan to attack a Hindu temple, but his gun jammed.
Palatine police said surveillance video showed Paporakis' car entering the parking lot of a "known large Hindu temple" in Aurora at 12:25 p.m. Sunday, then leaving at 12:38 p.m.
Police said Paporakis then returned to Palatine. Investigators believed Paporakis would again try to execute his violent plan, so they arrested him outside his Palatine home on Oct. 11.
Police and the FBI have said Paporakis was working alone.
Palatine police thanked Mount Prospect police several times for contacting them immediately when a good Samaritan called them to report the plot.
While searching his home, police said they found a rifle, multiple loaded rifle magazines, hundreds of additional rounds of rifle ammunition, tactical equipment, a tactical vest containing body armor, and a patch with imagery associated with white supremacist extremism.
Officers also found an eight-page manifesto. Police said the manifesto indicated Paporakis was planning this attack "for some time." It is apparently filled with hateful thoughts toward non-white people, especially those who are Indian.
Authorities said that, in the manifesto, Paporakis described himself as "an ordinary white kid going to college and working. Underneath that façade was a sociopathic white supremacist neo-Nazi filled with hatred, fantasizing about mass murder nearly every day."
The FBI and police have not publicly identified the temple Paporakis allegedly targeted, but U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) has said he and his family are worshippers at that temple, and were there at the time of the planned attack for the Hindu high holiday Navaratri.
While federal charges have not yet been filed, the FBI said they are not off the table.
Krishnamoorthi has called on the FBI to investigate the plot as a hate crime.