Alexandros Paporakis, a 19-year-old from Palatine, Illinois, has been arrested and charged as investigators unearthed an alleged plan to carry out a mass shooting.
Investigators believe he might have tried to target a Hindu place of worship in the Aurora area in Illinois, as per Fox32Chicago, which accessed the police report. Here's all you need to know about Alexandros Paporakis.
Who is Alexandros Paporakis?
Paporakis was arrested on October 11. He has been charged with making a terrorist threat, a Class X felony, and unlawfully possessing a rifle with a barrel shorter than 16 inches, which is a Class 3 felony.
He reportedly worked as a Taco Bell cashier for about seven months in Arlington Heights. A co-worker reportedly said that Paporakis made disparaging remarks about people of other races, especially Indians. He reportedly openly identified as a white supremacist and often discussed the Nazis and the armed struggle.
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{{/usCountry}}This rhetoric reportedly intensified as the day of executing the alleged plot neared. Paporakis allegedly told the co-worker that he could not wait to kill Indian people and had planned an attack on the largest Hindu temple in Aurora, as per Fox32. He allegedly said he would use a large amount of nutrition, with another person saying that Paporakis had described the next day as ‘special’.
Paporakis allegedly called his co-workers and spoke about the gun jamming while desiring an interest to ‘retry when I fix this’. The cops were brought in after this exchange. Palatine police found Paporakis at about 3:42pm in a parking lot near his apartment in the 1300 block of North Baldwin Court.
His photo was widely shared online.
What to know about Alexandros Paporakis' manifesto
Paporakis also allegedly sent a manifesto titled Why I Fought: A.K.A. (Aurora Shooter’s Manifesto).
This eight page document reportedly had racist slurs and hateful statements which targeted many groups including people of Indian ancestry, Jewish, and Black people. As per the report, he described them as ‘subhumans’ and wrote about a plan to kill as many as possible.
It also described how he obtained and modified an AR-style rifle, and his research into the intended target using YouTube and Google Street View. Paporakis allegedly had been planning an attack for two years and focused on the location for two months.
The document further encouraged others to commit violent acts, as per the report. Investigators reportedly found an AR-style rifle without a serial number, a tactical vest, eight loaded magazines, one loaded extended magazine and 300 rounds of rifle ammunition at his apartment.
They also found items showing Nazi symbolism, including swastikas.