A 19-year-old Taco Bell cashier will remain jailed without bond after prosecutors detailed an alleged plot to massacre worshippers at a Hindu temple near Chicago.
Alexandros Paporakis, of Palatine, Illinois, was arrested Sunday afternoon as he left his home, with police saying that same day was when he may have planned to strike the largest Hindu temple in neighboring Aurora. Detectives from the Mount Prospect and Palatine police departments coordinated the arrest after his co-workers reported receiving disturbing digital communications.
Those coworkers told investigators Paporakis openly identified as a white supremacist on the job and told them he couldn’t wait to kill Indian people, according to prosecutors from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. He had allegedly told them that Sunday was going to be “a special day.”
Paporakis called one coworker earlier that Sunday with an unexpected update. He said his gun had jammed and he left “super fast” without being seen, prosecutors said.
In an eight-page document he allegedly sent to the coworker, titled “Why I fought: A.K.A. (Aurora Shooter’s Manifesto),” Paporakis described Indian, Jewish and African American people as “subhumans” and laid out a plot to kill as many of them as possible, according to a court document.
Paporakis allegedly described himself in the manifesto as “a sociopathic white supremacist Neo Nazi filled with hatred, fantasizing about mass murder nearly every day.”
A search of his home turned up an AR-style rifle without a serial number, loaded magazines and ammunition, a gas canister labeled with a slur aimed at South Asians, and several items depicting Nazi symbolism, police and prosecutors said.
“The seriousness of this alleged threat cannot be overstated,” Palatine Police Chief William Nord said. He added that protecting places of worship is a law enforcement priority.
The exact intended location remains under investigation, though detectives believe the Aurora temple was the target. It was not immediately clear if Paporakis has legal representation.
Paporakis faces felony charges of making a terrorist threat and unlawfully possessing weapons. A judge ruled Wednesday he will remain in jail pretrial.
He is next scheduled to appear in court Oct. 30.