Pittsburgh-area man charged after alleged ISIS attack plot

A 20-year-old Butler County, Pennsylvania, man was arrested and charged with a federal terrorism-related offense after agents said he assembled a semiautomatic rifle, nearly 200 rounds of ammunition and other gear while expressing support for the Islamic State group, commonly known as ISIS.

Jonathan Hunter Kramer, of Valencia, was taken into custody Saturday outside a hotel in Cranberry Township, where he had allegedly used an online persona claiming affiliation with ISIS and said he was ready for his “mission” once he had a weapon, according to court documents.

FBI agents tracked Mr. Kramer that day as he left his Valencia home by rideshare, bought a disposable phone at a Walmart in Gibsonia, met another person who handed him a long black bag from a car trunk, and checked into the Cranberry Park Hotel with cash, authorities said. He later visited a sporting-goods store and was seen at its gun counter before agents took him into custody.

Searches of his bags and hotel room turned up a semiautomatic rifle, five rifle magazines — three with 30-round capacity — a bipod, a scope, 190 rounds of ammunition, pepper spray and signal-blocking equipment, according to the federal complaint. Agents also recovered approximately 30 knives and a handwritten note reading, “DoNt look For me[.] IDK what I did buT I cant live In constant Fear[.]”

Mr. Kramer had been on the FBI’s radar since 2023, when he was investigated as a minor in connection with an alleged mass-casualty plot and possession of child sexual abuse material, officials said. He was adjudicated delinquent and sent to a juvenile treatment facility. After his release in March, someone close to him alerted the FBI to a new phone, unexplained packages and concerns about his internet use, investigators said. Agents allege they then connected him to an encrypted account under the name “Hamza Al Rashid” that expressed support for ISIS and discussed attacking crowds.

Mr. Kramer is charged with receiving or transferring a firearm or ammunition while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe it would be used to commit a felony or federal crime of terrorism. The case is pending in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The allegations have not been proven in court.

The case is the latest in a string of disrupted ISIS-linked plots against Americans over the past two years.

In March, two Pennsylvania men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, drove from Pennsylvania to a protest outside Gracie Mansion in New York City, where Mr. Balat allegedly ignited and threw an improvised explosive device toward a crowd, then, after Mr. Kayumi handed him a second device, ignited and dropped it near NYPD officers, according to a Justice Department indictment announcement. “This was an alleged ISIS-inspired act of terrorism that could have killed American citizens,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said at the time.

In May 2025, a former Michigan Army National Guard member, Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, was accused of planning a mass shooting at the Detroit Arsenal military complex in Warren, Michigan, including conducting drone reconnaissance and supplying armor-piercing ammunition to people he believed were fellow ISIS supporters.

In June, the FBI arrested three men in Kansas and California on charges of conspiring to support ISIS, including a scheme to buy rocket-propelled grenades and drones. One defendant’s name was allegedly written on an RPG projectile intended for an attack on U.S. servicemembers overseas, and another allegedly provided money specifically to purchase drones for the same purpose.

The deadliest recent ISIS-inspired attack on U.S. soil came on New Year’s Day 2025, when Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing 14 people. Investigators recovered an ISIS flag from his vehicle and said he had posted videos online declaring his allegiance to the group, according to the FBI.