00:00Good morning. Happy New Year and it is a happy new year although it came very
00:07close to not being such a happy new year for a lot of people this year. I'm here
00:11to announce in partnership with the Mint Hill Police Department and the FBI
00:15that we have foiled a terrorist attack that was planned to take place on New
00:18Year's Eve in Mint Hill North Carolina. The defendant here is an 18 year old named
00:30Christian Sturdivant. He has been planning this attack for about a year but he's
00:35been planning an attack for far longer than that. He was planning this attack in
00:39support of ISIS and we have charged him with attempting to provide material
00:43support to a foreign terrorist organization, that organization being of
00:46course ISIS. Now this is still very much a active investigation. We had to act
00:51quickly here to protect the public so we are light on details but we'll tell you
00:56as much as we can and Mr. Barnacle will probably tell you more than I will about
01:00those charges but I thought I would give you an overview of what's in the federal
01:03complaint and the charges that we charged. So Mr. Sturdivant started on the
01:07internet. He started reading ISIS material, started going to ISIS websites, making
01:13tiktok videos, and eventually reached out to what he thought was a member of ISIS. In
01:17reality it was an undercover agent with NYPD in New York. He pledged his
01:22allegiance to ISIS with that undercover agent and he disclosed his plans to quote
01:27do jihad soon. He then met a second undercover with the FBI who he also thought was an
01:34ISIS participant and he started to be very specific with his plans. He talked with that
01:39undercover agent again who he thought was ISIS. He talked about where he was
01:44planning to do this attack which was at a grocery store and a fast-food
01:47restaurant in Mint Hill, places that we go every day and don't think that we may
01:51be harmed. He talked about what means he would use to kill innocent people. He said
01:57he was going to wear a Kevlar vest and attack people with knives and hammers and
02:01of course he talked about when he was going to carry out this attack which was New
02:05Year's Eve. FBI special agents arrested him on December 31st as he was being
02:10released from a local medical facility. On Monday night, as Russ just said, the FBI's
02:15evidence response team conducted a search, an authorized search, at his home and on
02:23his cellular phone. What we found was a manifesto which the federal complaint
02:29alleges contained detailed plans to execute a massacre on New Year's Eve as
02:35people shop, you know, for the holidays. Without the swift action of the FBI Joint
02:41Terrorism Task Force, New York City Police Department, the Mint Hill Police
02:46Department and our partners at the United States Attorney's Office for the Western
02:49District of North Carolina, we could be announcing a national tragedy. Instead, a
02:56terrorist attack was thwarted. Give a little background on Sturdivant. He's a
03:01U.S. citizen. He turned 18 in December of 2025. The JTTF collected evidence
03:09showing he turned his back on his country and his fellow citizens by pledging
03:13allegiance to ISIS with the intent of becoming a martyr. We allege Sturdivant
03:20was willing to sacrifice himself by committing a terrorist attack using knives
03:25and a hammer to support the murder, torture, and extreme violence that ISIS
03:31represents.
03:35We're always considering additional charges. And so in this case in
03:38particular, because this is a very early and an ongoing investigation, we are
03:42certainly investigating and looking at other charges, whether that's a firearm
03:45charge or some other charge. Right now, we feel confident we have this charge, which
03:49is attempted material support of ISIS, but we'll see how the investigation unfolds
03:53from here. Thank you. Yeah, definitely.
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