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The suspect, who was identified as Mark Steven Domingo, was seeking retribution for the recent attacks on mosques in New Zealand, according to authorities. He spoke of unleashing an attack similar to the massacre in Las Vegas, aiming to kill hundreds of people and was especially targeting white nationalists, Jews, churches and military bases, according to court documents filed Monday.
The suspect was arrested Friday night after he received what he thought was a live bomb, but in fact was an inert explosive device that was delivered by an undercover law enforcement officer as part of an investigation by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
After Domingo was given the inert device, he purchased “several hundred” nails that he wanted to put inside the bomb, Nicola Hanna, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said at a news conference on Monday.
“Mr. Domingo said he specifically bought 3-inch nails because they would be long enough to penetrate the human body and puncture internal organs,” Hanna said.
He has been charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Domingo, 26, of Reseda, “planned and took steps to manufacture and use a weapon of mass destruction order to commit mass murder,” according to the criminal complaint filed in court Monday.
The people Domingo believed were his collaborators were actually an undercover law enforcement officer and a confidential informant who has worked with federal authorities for several years.
Domingo was previously an active duty Army infantryman who had been deployed to Afghanistan from September 2012 to January 2013. Officials said they reviewed many online posts in which Domingo voiced his enthusiastic support for “violent jihad” and his desire to attack the Los Angeles area.
On March 3, Domingo posted “America needs another Vegas event,” he added, in reference to the massacre in 2017, “something to kick off civil unrest.” Later that month he posted “there must be retribution” for the attacks on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The arrest comes just two days after a shooting at a synagogue in the San Diego area that killed one woman and wounded three others, leaving many on edge and wary of copycat attacks.
Domingo, according to law enforcement, had three firearms registered to him, including two semi-automatic firearms and a bolt-action rifle. He was a recent convert to Islam, according to the complaint, and expressed support for the activities of the Islamic State. Domingo was acting independently, and there are no current threats to the area, federal officials said.
Over several weeks the informant met with Domingo and discussed his detailed plans to carry out an attack.
“Law enforcement was able to identify a man consumed with hate and bent on mass murder and stop him before he was able to carry out his attack,” Hanna said at the news conference. “All of these plans were related to Mr. Domingo’s stated belief in violent jihad and that Americans should pay for attacks on Muslims around the world.”
Most recently, Domingo had set his sights on a rally organized by a white nationalist group in Long Beach scheduled for April 28, the complaint said. When he later worried that the rally would be canceled, he looked at another site in Huntington Beach, but said it would be too difficult to inflict mass casualties because the area is a wide open space, according to the complaint.
Ultimately, Domingo traveled to Long Beach, where he was arrested by FBI agents after he received what he believed to be a bomb from an undercover officer.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.