McKinney Teen Arrested in Alleged ISIS-Inspired Plot to Kill Rep. Keith Self. What We Know
The FBI arrested a 17-year-old on Oct. 5, according to Self's campaign. The congressman says he went to the event anyway and kept campaigning. Federal officials have released few details.
A 17-year-old from McKinney is accused of plotting to assassinate U.S. Rep. Keith Self and to carry out a terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS, according to the congressman's campaign and Gov. Greg Abbott's office.
Self, a Republican who represents Texas' 3rd Congressional District, is running for a third term. He told NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth that the threat was serious enough that he stepped up his security, but he did not stop campaigning.
What has been reported
Self's campaign manager told NBC 5 that the FBI arrested the teen on Oct. 5, and that the congressman's team learned of the arrest through U.S. Capitol Police the next day.
According to the campaign, investigators believed the teen had been radicalized and was being monitored by federal agents. The campaign said it was told he had been planning a terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS and intended to target Self at a chili cook-off fundraiser for veterans on Oct. 17.
Abbott's office said in a statement that the juvenile "remains in federal custody after his arrest on October 5" and that the Texas Department of Public Safety will keep working with federal law enforcement "to disrupt these threats and protect Texans."
"The FBI stopped this radical Islamic terrorist before he could strike," Abbott said. "Radical Islamic terrorism has no place in Texas."
Much is still unknown. The teen's name has not been released, and NBC 5 reported that it had reached out to the FBI's Dallas office for more information and was still waiting for a reply. Publicly, federal authorities have not laid out the evidence. As in any criminal case, the accused is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Self: 'It won't deter me'
Self said his military experience helped him take the news calmly.
"Having deployed into combat zones several times, I'm happy it happened to me because people that have never dealt with this before tend to freak out when somebody tells you that somebody's trying to kill you," he told NBC 5. Because the arrest had already happened, he said, the question was whether the teen acted alone.
He said he has received threats before, "but nothing has risen to the level of an arrest." He added, "We understand it could have been a very serious incident from what we've been told."
Self went to the cook-off as planned. "I judged 19 different chilies and three different pots of beans," he said. "It was a delightful time and nothing, of course, happened." He said he has kept greeting voters at the polls during early voting and that the episode "will not deter me."
His Democratic opponent, Evan Hunt, also condemned the alleged plot on social media, NBC 5 reported. That is as it should be. Threats of violence against a candidate are an attack on every voter.
The backdrop
Self has taken a strong public stand against Sharia law. In September, he introduced a nonbinding resolution in Congress denouncing Sharia law and opposing its implementation in the United States, NBC 5 reported. The resolution says the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land.
His district includes McKinney, where plans for a mosque expansion have drawn heated debate. In August, the McKinney City Council unanimously approved the site plan, saying it met the city's development rules, after hours of contentious public comment. A recall effort against several council members followed.
No official has said publicly what motivated the alleged plot, and readers should be careful not to assume. Officials have not tied it to the mosque debate. The crime of one person should not be charged to his neighbors.
A word for this moment
Political violence has become a real threat in American life. Disagreement is part of a free country. Bullets are not. Christians are called to pray for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-2), whether or not we vote for them, and to reject any cause that turns to murder.
Give thanks that, by all accounts, law enforcement stepped in before anyone was hurt. Pray for Self and his family, for the agents who do this quiet work, and for a young man whose life has gone badly wrong. Then do the peaceful thing that self-government asks of every citizen: know your ballot and vote.
