January 1, ISIS Plotter Gets 18 Years For Targeting Idaho Churches

Wyatt’s Take

• A 21-year-old man who pledged allegiance to ISIS and planned to shoot up Idaho churches got 18 years in prison.
• The FBI stopped the attack one day before it was set to happen on a Sunday during Ramadan.
• Radical Islam remains a direct threat to Christian communities and the freedoms our founders protected.

A young man from Idaho will spend nearly two decades behind bars after he plotted a terror attack on Christian churches in his own hometown.

U.S. District Judge David Nye handed down the 18-year sentence plus lifetime supervision to Alexander Scott Mercurio. The FBI arrested him on April 6, 2024, just hours before he planned to open fire during Sunday services.

“America’s founders wanted our Nation to be a place where the faithful of any denomination could exercise their religious beliefs freely and without fear of violence,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security M. Scott Proctor. “Alexander Scott Mercurio planned to attack that fundamental freedom by bringing death and destruction to several churches.”

Mercurio pleaded guilty to trying to give material support to ISIS. His lawyers wanted only nine years, claiming he had quit radical Islam and blamed a rough family life.

Court records show messages he sent in February 2024 admitting he felt like a hypocrite for not yet killing non-Muslims or funding jihad.

“I am a hypocrite who has not even spat in the face of a kafir [a non-Muslim] or donated a single penny in the cause of Allah, let alone spilled their blood and induced terror into their hearts and minds. I have the tools to do so, but I still waiver because I am attached to the worldly life,” he wrote.

He wanted the attack to hit churches on Sunday because it was Christians’ “special day” and timed it for Ramadan.

“Stop close by the church, equip the weapon(s) and storm the temple, kill as many as possible before they inevitably dispurse/scatter, then burn the temple to the ground and flee the scene, then move onto the next church, rinse and repeat for all 21+ churches in town until killed,” he texted.

Mercurio also talked about using a machete and setting buildings on fire before moving to the next target. Days before the attack he recorded a pledge to ISIS.

The day before the planned shooting, agents searched his house and found butane canisters, lighters, handcuffs, a knife, and a machete. They also found guns that belonged to his father, which he intended to use.

The FBI first spotted Mercurio while looking into a crypto scheme to fund ISIS. They traced him to an online account full of radical Islamic material, including songs about conquest and chants calling for blood and the black flag.

Wyatt Matters

Hard-working Americans expect the government to protect their churches and families from foreign terror threats, and swift justice like this shows law enforcement can still do its job when it stays focused on real dangers instead of politics.