Palatine police say mass shooting plot foiled, possibly targeting Aurora house of worship; Alexandros Paporakis, 19, charged

PALATINE, Ill. (WLS) — Palatine police arrested 19-year-old Alexandros Paporakis on Sunday, and he now faces charges of making a terrorist threat and illegal possession of weapons. Investigators say he possessed an AR-style rifle, 300 rounds of ammunition and intended to kill as many minorities as possible, prosecutors say.

Paporakis wrote an eight-page manifesto using derogatory and racist slurs and specifically targeting people of Indian descent at a Hindu place of worship, according to court documents in the case. He promised he would die himself, but not before killing as many minorities as possible, prosecutors said.

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Paporakis was in contact with a co-worker at a Taco Bell in Arlington Heights, according to investigators, who said he became manic over the weekend, culminating in sending a video of an AR-style rifle and a photo of himself wearing a tactical vest. This colleague then called the police. Palatine police arrested Paporakis on Sunday in his Palatine apartment and said they found an AR-style rifle, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and other tactical equipment.

In pretrial detention documents obtained by the ABC7 I-Team, prosecutors said Paporakis described himself as a “hate-filled sociopathic white supremacist neo-Nazi” who drove to a location, attempted to fire his gun at a man, but the gun jammed. He had been planning the attack for two years, according to court records.

“It’s quite likely that without the quick action and investigative activities of local law enforcement authorities, we very well could have had another mass shooting in this country,” said John Cohen, former DHS intelligence chief and ABC News contributor.

According to Paporakis’ colleague, there were signs that something was wrong.

“What we really found is that in almost all cases, an individual who is planning an attack will have behaviors, whether online or in the physical world, that represent an expression of an intent to engage in violence,” Cohen said.

Palatine Police are leading the investigation and told the I-Team they are still working to verify some critical details about what actions Paporakis may have taken and whether there was a specific location he was looking to target. They believe it was a Hindu temple in Aurora, Illinois, which is why they notified the Aurora Police Department of a potential threat.

Prosecutors say Paporakis suffers from mental health issues and lived with his mother who they say failed to stop him from making violent plans and buying a gun.

“We need to do a better job of educating the public about what to look for and what to report, and we need to do a better job and provide more resources to localities so they can quickly take action to prevent shootings,” Cohen told the I-Team.

Paporakis was in court Wednesday and remanded in custody. He will be back in court at the end of the month.