Suspect arrested in connection with alleged Los Angles area terror plot

U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna, FBI Special Agent in Charge Ryan Young, Los Angeles Police Chief Michael R. Moore hold press conference to announce results of a counterterror investigation in L.A.

A U.S. Army veteran was plotting a large-scale terror attack in Los Angeles as revenge for the mass shooting at a mosque in New Zealand, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.

Mark Steven Domingo, 26, boasted about amassing an arsenal of weapons, including 80 pounds of nails for a bomb, to carry out an attack in retaliation for the killing of Muslims by a white supremacist in the city of Christchurch, the indictment says.

He was arrested April 26 after he received what he thought was a live bomb but was in fact a phony explosive device supplied by an FBI informant, authorities said.

“There were mosque shootings in new Zealand,” Domingo posted to a private group online on March 14, according to federal prosecutors. “[T]here must be retribution.”

Domingo allegedly added: “I feel like I should make a christians life miserable tomorrow for our fallen bros n sis in [N]ew Zealand…maybe a jews life…they shed our blood…no Muslim should have to experience this, a message needs to be sent.”

Investigators conducted an online sting operation, during which Domingo allegedly told an undercover FBI source to find a bomb-maker and purchased several hundred nails to use as shrapnel.

“Domingo said he specifically bought three-inch nails because they would be long enough to penetrate the human body and puncture internal organs,” FBI Special Agent Tasha Coolidge said in an affidavit supporting the indictment.

The affidavit also alleges that Domingo posted an online video on March 2 professing his belief in Islam. The following day, he posted on an unnamed social media network that “america needs another vegas event … to kick off civil unrest,” a reference to the October 2017 mass shooting at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Domingo allegedly wrote that such an event would be “about weakening america [and] giving them a taste of the terror they gladly spread all over the world.”