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Boston Police Captain made nightmare choice to turn in ISIS-inspired son – Metro US

Boston Police Captain made nightmare choice to turn in ISIS-inspired son

Boston Police Captain made nightmare choice to turn in ISIS-inspired son
FBI

Having to turn in your own kid is a parent’s worst nightmare. Add in allegations of ISIS-inspired terror plots and a parent on the police force and the nightmare plunges into the depths of surrealistic horror.

According to the Boston Herald, this was the fate of Boston Police Capt. Robert Ciccolo and his only son Alexander. Capt. Ciccolo turned his 23-year-old son over to the FBI after he started talking obsessively about ISIS.

Once he accepted that there was nothing he could do about Alexander’s obsession, Capt. Ciccolo could only wait until his son, who had a history of mental illness, would take a fascination with violent Islamic ideology too far.

According to an FBI affidavit released on Monday, Alexander, also known as Ali Al Amriki, was busted with a duffle bag filled with guns as he headed towards his Adams apartment on July 4. He was banned from buying guns after a previous criminal conviction.

He is said to have told the informant about plans to commit terrorist attacks involving IEDs like pressure cooker bombs like the ones used in the 2013 Boston Marathon attack “in places where large numbers of people congregate, like college cafeterias,” and had Molotov cocktails with Styrofoam soaking in motor oil in order to “cause the fire from the exploded device to stick to people’s skin and make it harder to put the fire out.”

The affidavit said he had a knife with a five-inch blade and a receipt from the pressure cooker in his wallet.

During a routine medical screening at the Franklin House of Correction following his arrest, Ciccolo “grabbed a pen and forcefully stabbed the nurse in the head, leaving a hole in the nurse’s skin and causing the pen to break in half.”

Alexander will appear in federal court to face charges of being a felon in possession of firearms, which carries a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. He will be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Springfield at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.