Workplace violence.
CHICAGO – A former Illinois National Guard soldier has pleaded guilty to charges he conspired to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS.)
Hasan Edmonds, 22, of Aurora, Illinois, entered the plea in Chicago federal court Monday, a week after his cousin, Jonas Edmonds, pleaded guilty to similar charges. They are accused of plotting to attack the Joliet Armory with assault rifles and grenades.
Prosecutors alleged that Jonas Edmonds, 29, planned to wear his cousin’s military uniform in the attack at the facility where Hasan Edmonds trained. Charges alleged the pair hoped to kill as many as 150 people.
Hasan Edmonds is to be sentenced March 18 and faces up to 30 years in prison. Jonas Edmonds is to be sentenced Jan. 27 and faces up to 23 years in prison.
The cousins allegedly told an FBI undercover employee their plan for an armed attack.
ccording to court documents, an undercover FBI agent sent Edmonds a friend request on Facebook in late 2014, and in January, Edmonds and the agent exchanged a series of messages on Facebook, and Hasan allegedly discussed plans to travel overseas with his cousin to fight with ISIS extremists, CBS Chicago reported.
“The State has been established and it is our duty to heed the call,” he allegedly wrote. “I look forward to the training. I am already in the american kafir [infidel] army …and now I wish only to serve in the army of Allah alongside my true brothers”.