New Year’s Eve terror attack foiled in New York state

December 31, 2015

A New Year’s Eve terror attack has been foiled by police in New York state.

According to officials 25-year-old Emanuel Lutchman, who has been charged with attempting to provide material support to so-called Islamic State, was allegedly plotting a machete attack on diners at a restaurant in the city of Rochester in the name of ISIS. FBI special agent Adam S. Cohen said in a statement: “The FBI thwarted Emanuel Lutchman’s intent to kill civilians on New Year’s Eve.

Lutchman was allegedly receiving direction from an overseas ISIS member.

He made an initial appearance Thursday morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marian W. Payson and is due back in court on January 8 at 11 a.m.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Rochester Joint Terrorism Task Force and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Harvey with the assistance of Trial Attorney Lawrence Schneider of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

According to the local paper,the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle he is aged 25 and from Rochester, a “self-professed Muslim convert”. Through an informant, the FBI learned Lutchman had been in contact online with someone overseas who identified himself as an ISIS member in Syria. Court papers do not identify who this man is. As well as the use of a machete his suggestions about how he would carry out his attack include use of a pressure cooker bomb and the selection and kidnap of a diner. In preparation he and an undercover agent purchased “two black ski masks, zip ties, two knives, a machete, duct tape, ammonia, and latex gloves.”

Lutchman also told the informant: “If we grab somebody, they can’t live. They may identify the vehicle. They can’t live. . . the operation is a go. We just gotta do it man. We got the knives, we’ve got the gloves, we got the ammonia, so whatever the case may be.”