A self-described white supremacist's alleged plan to gun down worshippers at a Hindu temple in Aurora, Illinois, collapsed before a single shot could be fired, investigators say — stopped by a malfunctioning rifle and the co-worker who alerted police. Alexandros Paporakis, 19, of Palatine, appeared Wednesday at the Cook County Third Municipal District Courthouse in Rolling Meadows, where a judge ordered him held in custody. His next court appearance is scheduled for October 30.
The case came to light on Sunday afternoon, when Mount Prospect police received a report about disturbing electronic communications from Paporakis and passed the tip to authorities in Palatine, where he lives. According to Palatine Police Chief William Nord, police were alerted shortly after 3:30 p.m. Paporakis was arrested that day by officers from the Mount Prospect and Palatine departments.
Prosecutors allege that Paporakis had set his sights on the largest Hindu temple in the state, in Aurora, a city about 70 kilometers from Chicago. He told a co-worker that Sunday would be "a special day," and later admitted that he had gone to the temple and tried to open fire — but his rifle jammed, and he fled "super fast" without being seen, according to prosecutors from the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
The co-worker who first contacted police was not the only one who had reason to worry. Paporakis, a cashier at a Taco Bell in Arlington Heights, reportedly told colleagues at work that he could not wait to kill Indian people and openly identified as a white supremacist, frequently discussing Nazis and armed struggle. Before his arrest, he sent co-workers an eight-page document titled "Why I fought: A.K.A. (Aurora Shooter's Manifesto)," in which he described Indian, Jewish and African American people as "subhumans" and laid out a plan to kill as many of them as possible. In the document, he described himself as "a sociopathic white supremacist Neo Nazi filled with hatred, fantasising about mass murder nearly every day."
The alleged plot unfolded during Navaratri, one of the busiest festive periods on the Hindu calendar, when temples draw large crowds for evening worship. Investigators said Paporakis had shared a document outlining the alleged attack along with images of a rifle, rifle magazines, body armor and other tactical equipment.
When detectives searched his home, they found an AR-style rifle without a serial number, loaded magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, according to investigators. Officers also recovered a tactical vest containing body armor and patches bearing white supremacist imagery, along with several items depicting Nazi symbolism and a gas canister labeled with a slur aimed at South Asians. "The seriousness of this alleged threat cannot be overstated," Nord said.
Paporakis has been charged with making a terrorist threat, a Class X felony, and unlawfully possessing a rifle with a barrel shorter than 16 inches. Police said they notified temples in the area about the threat.
The Consulate General of India in Chicago said it was aware of reports concerning the alleged attempt to target a place of worship in Aurora and appreciated the timely action by law enforcement authorities, adding that it was in touch with members of the Indian diaspora and closely monitoring developments.
The foiled plot has rattled Hindu-American organizations, which say it reflects a worrying climate around places of worship. The arrest comes about two weeks after the Shree Swaminarayan Vadtal Dham Hindu Mandir in Richmond Heights, Ohio, was vandalized, and Hindu community leaders are pressing for greater protection of religious sites and a stronger federal response to anti-Hindu hate crimes.
The case lands in a grim national moment for attacks on crowded public spaces. Just days earlier, a gunman killed eight people and then himself in Erie, Pennsylvania, in one of the deadliest mass shootings of the year, and prosecutors say Illinois came close to joining that list only because a gun malfunctioned. Investigators continue to examine the manifesto and the suspect's communications as the prosecution moves toward the October 30 hearing, with federal hate-crime charges still a possibility as the investigation widens.