U.S. prosecutors said Monday that an American man accused of providing material support to Islamic state militants and planning terrorist attacks in the United States also had been charged with killing his neighbor.
Prosecutors said Justin Nojan Sullivan, 19, of North Carolina had been indicted by a grand jury on a range of charges, including the murder of his 74-year-old neighbor.
He also was charged with attempting to provide support to Islamic State, as well as violating firearms-related laws and trying to hire someone to kill his parents.
The Justice Department said that the FBI had been monitoring Sullivan and that he had discussed on social media his plans to carry out a terrorist attack with another person, who actually was an undercover FBI employee.
Sullivan told the undercover agent he planned to carry out an attack with an assault rifle at a concert, bar or club, where he believed as many as 1,000 people would be killed. Prosecutors said Sullivan watched violent Islamic State attacks on the Internet, including beheadings, after converting to Islam.
Sullivan was arrested in June at his parents' home, where officials said they found a rifle that Sullivan admitted belonged to him. Officials said forensic testing showed the rifle had been used to kill Sullivan's neighbor.
Sullivan is in federal custody awaiting trial.
