The FBI thwarted a ‘potential terrorist attack’ on New Year’s Eve — arresting an 18-year-old ‘inspired by ISIS’. Officials said Christian Sturdivant had planned to attack a grocery store and fast food restaurant in his hometown and kill both civilians and responding police officers. Federal agents also found handwritten plans outlining the knife and hammer attack while searching his home.
“He was preparing for jihad and innocent people were going to die…Countless lives were saved here. On New Year’s Eve, everyone is at the grocery store. We’re all buying the things we need to celebrate. And we could have had a significant, significant loss of life, a significant injury here,” reports quoted US Attorney Russ Ferguson as saying at a news conference.
The US citizen has been charged with “attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation” and faces up to 20 years in prison. He made his first court appearance on Friday but has not yet entered a plea on the charges. The alleged attack would have taken place merely a year after a US citizen and Army veteran who proclaimed support for IS on social media murdered 14 people in New Orleans.
Contact with undercover agents
Sturdivant had planned the attack for about a year and made contact with two undercover agents with the FBI and New York Police Department. He had believed they were affiliated with ISIS as he shared photos of his intended weapons and discussed attack plans. According to the complaint, he sent images of two hammers and a knife to the officials in December via direct messages online.
According to a Justice Department statement, FBI agents searching his home had also found a handwritten document titled “New Years Attack 2026”.— allegedly discussing plans to stab up to 20 victims and attack responding police officers. Agents seized hammers and knives from his bedroom.
On FBI radar since 2022
The affidavit says Sturdivant had also been on the FBI radar as a minor in January 2022. Officials learned at the time that he was in contact with a suspected IS member in Europe, and received instructions to dress in black, knock on people’s doors and commit attacks with a hammer. At that time, Sturdivant set out for a neighbor’s house armed with a hammer and a knife but was restrained by his grandfather.
Ferguson also voiced frustration with the US court system on Friday as he noted earlier efforts to detain Sturdivant on mental health grounds.
“ I think it is notable that, as part of their efforts, the FBI took Mr Sturdivant to a state magistrate judge to try to have him involuntarily committed. And that was because he had threatened not only other people’s lives, but in the process said that he planned to die by a policeman shooting him. So he had threatened other people’s lives and self-harm, but the state magistrate judge denied involuntary commitment,” he said.