Pakistani man charged with plotting to attack a Jewish center in New York pleads guilty

NEW YORK (AP) — A Pakistani man pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge Wednesday, saying it was a “morally reprehensible idea” to support the Islamic State group by plotting to use automatic weapons to kill Jewish people at a Brooklyn center.

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 21, said he answered the group's call for Muslims to kill Jewish people by plotting to attack the Jewish center in October 2024.

He entered the plea in Manhattan federal court over 18 months after he was brought to the United States from Canada, where he was arrested on Sept. 4, 2024, in or near Ormstown, Canada, which is 12 miles from the U.S. border.

In a release, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said Khan planned a mass shooting to coincide with the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks “with the explicit goal of killing as many Jews as possible.”

Eisenberg said Khan, also known as “Shahzeb Jadoon,” had boasted that he would carry out the largest attack on U.S. soil since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Khan told Judge Paul G. Gardephe as he pleaded guilty to a single charge of trying to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries that he was going to cross the border from Canada to the United States in September 2024 with “the intention of killing Jewish people in Brooklyn.”

Khan said he was motivated to provide material support to the Islamic State group in retaliation for Israel's killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

He said he now regrets his plan, which included renting a space next to the Jewish center.

“I was not raised this way,” Khan said, adding that what he planned to do was wrong.

Khan said plotting to kill Jewish people was a “terrible, extremely dangerous and morally reprehensible idea.”

Gardephe set sentencing for Aug. 12, when Khan could face up to life in prison.

Kahn has been jailed since his arrest. He was granted a student visa in Canada in May 2023 and arrived in Toronto in June of that year.

U.S. authorities have said he planned to use guns and knives to carry out an attack supporting the Islamic State group.

Authorities said Khan drew the attention of investigators after he began posting about his support for the Islamic State group in November 2023.

They said he subsequently began planning terrorist attacks in the United States and communicating with two undercover law enforcement officers.

According to a release from federal authorities, he said he planned to target a prominent Jewish religious center in Brooklyn, the release said.

He told the undercover officers that “New york is perfect to target jews” because it has the “largest Jewish population in america,” the release said.

He also wrote that “we are going to nyc to slaughter them,” the release said.

U.S. authorities have said his online messages described the Brooklyn site, which was not named in court documents, as “the ultra orthodox hasidic jews world headquarters.”