A 21-year-old man who allegedly planned to attack two Toledo-area synagogues has been arrested, the Ohio U.S. attorney's office said on Monday.
Damon Joseph was inspired by Robert Bowers, the man who killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in October, according to a statement by the attorney's office.
Joseph was also charged with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group.
He was arrested on Friday when he met an undercover agent to take possession of two AR-15 assault rifles that he believed the agent had purchased for the attack, a statement by Assistant Attorney General John Demers said.
"I admire what the guy did with the shooting actually," Joseph told the agent, according to the Justice Department. "I can see myself carrying out this type of operation, inshallah (God willing, in Arabic). They wouldn't even expect [an attack] in my area."
Joseph told the agent that he wanted to kill a rabbi, according to an FBI affidavit. He also said, according to the FBI, that "Jewish people were evil and deserved what was coming to them."
According to the Jewish Telegraph Agency, Joseph sent a plan for his attack on one of two Toledo-area synagogues to the agent in early December with a request for weapons and ammunition. He was arrested, as stated, after he took possession of the two AR-15 rifles from the undercover agent.
The FBI said it became aware of Joseph earlier this year after he pledged his allegiance to ISIS and posted online videos to encourage others to join the jihadist group. He expressed hatred for Americans – singling out gays, Christians, Catholics and Jews, according to the FBI.
If convicted, Joseph faces up to 20 years in prison.
"We cannot tolerate hate directed toward people of Jewish faith, or of any other religion, and last month's mass-killing at a Pittsburgh synagogue is a reminder of just how real this threat is," Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said Monday in a statement, the JTA reported.
Also Monday, an Ohio woman who corresponded with Charleston, South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof was charged with planning to bomb a Toledo bar, prosecutors said.
Elizabeth Lecron, 23, was accused of purchasing gunpowder and screws that the FBI said she intended to use in an "upscale mass murder" at the bar, U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said in a statement.
Lecron came to the attention of police this year after an associate expressed a desire to conduct an attack. Investigators found a number of social media posts by Lecron glorifying mass murderers, including Roof and the Columbine High School shooters.
She visited Columbine High School this year and exchanged letters with Roof, attempting to send Nazi literature to the avowed white supremacist, according to an affidavit filed in the case.
Roof was sentenced to death for the 2015 killing of nine worshipers at an African-American church in Charleston.
In discussions with undercover FBI agents, Lecron also talked about an attack to free farm animals, bombing a pipeline and attacking her workplace.
On Friday, she purchased two pounds (0.9 kg) of a muzzle-loading gunpowder and 665 screws at stores in Perrysburg, Ohio, after which police arrested her.
