Former Ontario student pleads guilty in NYC Jewish centre terrorism plot

An ISIS friend who came to Canada on a consider allow and planned a mass shot targeting Jews in young York City has pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge in a U.S. Court.

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a 21-year-old Pakistani citizen, appeared before a federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday — acknowledging publicly for the first time his involvement in the violent plot. 

The attack was set to be carried out at a Jewish centre in Brooklyn to mark the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, according to prosecutors. 

Khan told an undercover officer his goal was to “slaughter” as many Jews as possible, in what he expected would be the “largest attack on U.S. Soil since 9/11.” 

Khan is scheduled to be sentenced in August, per a U.S. Department of Justice news release. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Khan's plea makes it "unequivocally clear" that "terrorism and other hate-based violence have zero place in New York City," Jay Clayton, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

Khan, who had been living in Mississauga, Ont., was arrested by heavily-armed RCMP officers on Sept. 4, 2024 in Ormstown, Que., near the New York border. According to court documents, Khan had paid a human smuggler for help crossing into the U.S. 

Khan later told undercover investigators about his plan to build an ISIS cell and amass an arsenal, including AR-style rifles and hunting knives, to carry out the mass killing in Brooklyn. 

By pleading guilty to an attempted act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, he avoids a trial that was set to begin next month. Khan had also been indicted by a grand jury on a charge of attempted provision of material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorism organization — the self-styled Islamic State group.

Khan said he and his associates “would be needing every bullet and magazines" because more than 300 Jews would be on hand. Plus, he said, the ensuing shootout with authorities “could also be long for which we would require ample ammo.”

Khan applied for a Canadian study permit in March 2023. His request was approved the following month, and he came to Ontario in June 2023, according to records presented to MPs at a committee hearing in Ottawa after Khan’s arrest.

A security screening by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada “did not identify any risk indicators,” the report said. Khan’s application was not referred to CSIS and the federal border agency for a more comprehensive security review.

“Let’s not be naive,” then-federal immigration minister Marc Miller said in September 2024.

“A determined individual can gain access to this country and that is for the security services inside our country to apprehend this person if they commit a crime or if they’re about to commit a crime,” he said. 

“And that’s exactly what happened.”

---

---