Michigan man arrested for planning terrorist attack

Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, a 19-year-old former member of the Michigan Army National Guard, recently was arrested after attempting to conduct a mass-shooting at a U.S. military base in Warren, Mich., on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a foreign terrorist organization. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating.

Said informed two undercover law enforcement officers of a plan he devised to conduct a mass-shooting, according to the complaint. The officers indicated they intended to carry out Said’s plan at the direction of ISIS, and Said provided ammunition, magazines and weapons.

Officers arrested Said on May 13, the scheduled day of the attack, after he launched a drone in support of the attack plan. He appeared in court at the Eastern District of Michigan on Wednesday and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count if he is convicted.

“Helping ISIS or any other terrorist organization prepare or carry out acts of violence is not only a reprehensible crime – it is a threat to our entire nation and way of life,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. for the Eastern District of Michigan said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office plans to ask the court to hold Said in pretrial detention as he is a flight risk and a danger to the community.