US says North Carolina New Year’s Eve attack thwarted

The U.S. Department of Justice says a North Carolina man foiled an alleged plot to carry out an Islamic State-inspired attack using a knife and hammer on New Year’s Eve.

Christian Sturdivant, 18, of Mint Hill, North Carolina, was charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, according to a criminal complaint.

Sturdivant has not yet entered a plea to the charges.

He was arrested on Wednesday, New Year’s Eve, and made his first court appearance on Friday.

Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, told reporters at the press conference that Sturdivant had pledged allegiance to the ISIS group and planned to attack a grocery store and fast food restaurant in his hometown.

“He was preparing for jihad and innocent people were going to die,” Ferguson said.

FBI agents searching Sturdivant’s home found a handwritten document titled “New Year’s Attack 2026” in which he allegedly discussed plans to stab up to 20 victims and attack responding police officers.

According to information from the Department of Justice and included in the criminal complaint, agents seized hammers and knives from the bedroom.

Sturdivant had been planning the attack for about a year, and in December had communicated online with two undercover agents from the FBI and the New York Police Department who he believed had ties to ISIS.

He shared photos of two hammers and a knife and discussed plans for an upcoming attack, according to the complaint.

Sturdivant first came on the FBI’s radar in 2022, when he was in contact with an unidentified ISIS member abroad as a child and took steps to stage a hammer attack.

He was not charged in the incident and instead received psychological treatment, according to law enforcement officials.