Man was arrested before he carried out a planned New Year’s Eve attack

 

Emanuel Lutchman was arrested after an FBI sting operation found he was planning a violent attack this New Year’s Eve. Source: New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

AN ex-convict who planned to carry out a New Year’s Eve attack at an upstate New York bar was trying to prove he was worthy of joining the Islamic State terror group.

AP reported authorities said the 25-year-old from Rochester was going to unleash knives and a machete on innocent people.

Emanuel Lutchman, a Muslim convert with mental health issues, was charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists, prosecutors said.

AP reported Lutchman was caught by an FBI sting operation, which involved three paid informants.

The FBI said Lutchman had been collaborating with the informants since November and conversations between them were sometimes recorded.

During those conversations, the ex-convict expressed strong support of IS and a desire to join the terror organisation in Syria, according to a criminal complaint.

On Sunday, Lutchman sent a message to one of the FBI’s confidential sources, including an audio recording in which Lutchman swore allegiance to the Islamic State and its leader, the FBI said.

One of the informants leaked to the FBI that Lutchman had communicated with a “brother” in the Islamic State group overseas.

According to AP, the “brother” and Lutchman were chatting online on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and Lutchman was told to prove himself to the group by praying regularly and planning an “operation” on New Year’s Eve.

Court papers read the overseas “brother” told Lutchman he was “behind enemy lines”, that Lutchman was the closest person to Islamic State’s most hated enemy, the United States.

AP reported Lutchman told the overseas “brother” he hated the US and was ready to “give everything up” to join IS.

Lutchman was told to do everything he could while he was still in the US.

Court papers did not release the name of the bar-restaurant in Rochester where Lutchman planned to carry out the attack.

AP reported that according to the FBI, Lutchman and an informant bought knives, a machete, ski masks and plastic cable ties for the attack.

He had no money so the informant loaned him $40.

Lutchman was jailed in 2006 for five years after a robbery and his grandmother Beverley Carridice told NBC News he had psychiatric problems since he was a child, but she had never heard him express radical thoughts or admiration for IS.

NBC understands Lutchman converted to Islam while serving his sentence.

Lutchman was arrested on Wednesday and the New York Post reported he faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.