A suburban Washington, D.C. man was charged Monday with plotting to kill a member of the U.S. military, in a case that was closely monitored by federal authorities.
Nelash Mohamed Das, 24, of Hyattsville, Maryland was charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS. A lawful permanent resident from Bangladesh, he has been living in the U.S. since 1995.
Investigators say he expressed support for ISIS a year ago on social media and said he also supported the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. Last October, court documents say, he tweeted the name of a person he knew was hoping to join the U.S. military. The posting, prosecutors said, was intended to inspire violence.
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The documents say Das told an informant, working undercover for the FBI, that he wanted to kill a member of the U.S. military in Prince George's County, Maryland. He later told the informant he was looking for other names of people to attack that he was committed "one hundred percent" to killing attacking someone.
"That's my goal in life," he said, according to prosecutors.
Last Friday, court documents said, he bought ammunition for a gun provided by the informant, which had been rendered incapable of firing, and drove to an address where he thought his target lived. When he got out of the car and headed to the trunk to retrieve the gun, he was arrested.
Individuals intent on carrying out violence in the name of foreign terrorist organizations pose one of the most concerning threats that law enforcement faces today, and stopping these offenders before they are able to act is our highest priority, said John Carlin, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's National Security Division.
Das appeared briefly in federal court Monday in Greenbelt, Maryland and was ordered held pending a detention hearing Thursday.
