The US teen, who has been arrested for planning a violent plot targeting a Hindu place of worship in Illinois, Chicago, was one malfunctioning rifle away from becoming a mass shooter, according to police. Alexandros Paporakis, 19, who works as a cashier at Taco Bell in the suburban hometown of Palatin, had plotted to carry out a “mass shooting of Indian people” at a Hindu temple in Aurora.
Citing sources familiar with the case, NBS reported that one of Paporakis’s co-workers notified police of the plot, following which he was arrested on Sunday before he could return to the Hindu temple. The writings “expressed words of hate, violence, superior race and mass shooting of Indian people. During searches at his house, police found a modified AR-style rifle and 300 rounds of ammo, enough to fill ten magazines for reloading, along with body armour, gasoline cans and an assortment of swastikas, according to investigators.
Paporakis allegedly drove from his mother’s home in Palatine to a temple in Aurora on Sunday, where he intended “to kill a significant number of Indians”, NBC Chicago reported, citing police. The suspect tried to open fire, but his gun jammed, forcing him to drive back home, according to the report. There he “searched the internet trying to learn how to unjam his gun and called a colleague, informing them of (his) intent to carry out a mass shooting,” police said. Investigators said during searches at his house, police found a manifesto apparently written by Paporakis, calling himself the “Aurora Shooter”. His hatred was against Jewish people, African Americans, Indians, and “non-white” people, police said. Police noted that Paporakis “expressed pleasure calling himself a sociopathic white supremacist Neo-Nazi filled with hatred, fantasising about mass murder nearly every day.”
