Indictment announced against Palatine teen charged with plotting Aurora shooting
Cook County prosecutors on Monday announced the indictment of a Palatine teen who authorities say plotted a mass shooting at an Aurora temple last month.
Alexandros Paporakis, 19, is charged with making a terrorist threat and unlawful use of a weapon. In convicted on those charges, he faces a minimum six and up to 30 years in prison.
Paporakis is scheduled for arraignment Nov. 19 at the Cook County courthouse in Rolling Meadows. He remains in custody at the county jail while his case is pending.
Authorities say Paporakis went to the Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) temple on Oct. 11, with a rifle and 300 rounds of ammunition. When he tried to open fire, the rifle jammed, preventing him from carrying out the attack, according to prosecutors.
Paporakis left the temple, but told a co-worker he planned to return, authorities said. That co-worker alerted police, who arrested the defendant outside his Palatine home later that day.
Police said detectives found Paporakis' eight-page manifesto expressing white supremacist views and describing violence against people of Indian descent at a Hindu place of worship.
“I decided to target something that would give me pleasure to destroy,” Paporakis wrote of his planned attack on Sri Venkateswara Swami Balaji Temple, prosecutors said.
Police said they also recovered body armor and a patch with white supremacist imagery from Paporakis’ home.
Last month, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and more than 100 fellow members of Congress sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel asking the agency to investigate the attempted mass shooting as a federal hate crime.
Krishnamoorthi, a Schaumburg Democrat, and his family were at the temple Oct. 11 day celebrating the start of Navaratri, a nine-day Hindi celebration.
“No one should fear being targeted because of their ancestry, appearance, or faith, and no congregation should have to wonder whether gathering for worship will make its members targets of mass violence,” the letter reads.
bvitello@dailyherald.com