FBI names third man accused of planning Halloween terror attack in Michigan

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Investigators say a third Michigan man is now facing charges in a plot to stage a terror attack on Halloween. He traveled to an amusement park in the Midwest to scout the location, they said.

Ayob Nasser, 19, was arrested Wednesday. He is accused of participating in the planning of a possible attack on LGBTQ+ bars in suburban Detroit that was inspired by the Islamic State, federal authorities have said.

Also on Wednesday evening, acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba in New Jersey said in a video posted to social media that her office had charged two more people “connected” to the alleged plot. Court documents detailing the charges were not immediately available.

Nasser, his brother Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud are charged with conspiracy to provide material support and resources to a designated terrorist organization and receiving and transferring guns and ammunition for terrorism, according to court documents.

Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud were arrested Friday. Investigators say two minors, identified only as Person 1 and Person 2 in court documents, were also involved in the discussions.

“We will not stop. We will follow the tentacles where they lead. We will continue to stand guard with the FBI against terrorism,” said U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said in a statement.

It was unclear whether Nasser has an attorney. An attorney representing Nasser in an unrelated civil lawsuit, Hussein Shadi Bazzi, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to court records, Nasser is one of two people being sued in federal court by the makers of the popular video game Fortnite. The two are accused of making thousands of fake “bot” accounts that earned “tens of thousands of dollars in unearned payments.”

Two attorneys representing Ali and Mahmoud declined to comment when reached by phone Wednesday evening, and both said they are reading through an amended 93-page complaint filed in federal court. One of the attorneys, Amir Makled, over the weekend seemed to wave off the allegations, saying they were the result of “hysteria” and “fear-mongering.”

Ali and Mahmoud made brief appearances in federal court Monday and will remain in custody at least until a Nov. 10 detention hearing.

FBI agents had surveilled the group for weeks, even using a camera on a pole outside a Dearborn house, according to the court filing. Investigators also got access to encrypted chats and other conversations and scoured social media posts.

According to the court filing, investigators searched the residences of the group, an auto repair shop operated by Ali and Nasser’s family and a storage unit rented by Ali. Authorities found AR-15-style rifles, ammunition, loaded handguns and GoPro cameras, as well as tactical vests and backpacks.

Five cellular devices were also seized, the FBI said.

Investigators said that Ali, Mahmoud and one of the minors, Person 1, visited bars in Ferndale, a northern suburb of Detroit, despite all being under the legal drinking age. The city attracts tens of thousands of people to its annual Pride parade.

Nasser and Person 2 traveled twice in September to “an amusement park in the Midwest, approximately three hours from Dearborn, Michigan,” court documents say, citing phone records and surveillance footage. Investigators say a computer at the home of Nasser and Ali revealed that someone had searched “is it crowded on halloweekend” at the amusement park.

The documents do not name the amusement park. But Cedar Point, an amusement park near Cleveland, Ohio, appears to match the description and special Halloween hours outlined in the complaint. A spokesperson for Cedar Point did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the new court filing, investigators said a group chat between the men indicated a Halloween attack with repeated references to pumpkins and pumpkin emojis. In the group chat, one of the unnamed conspirators wrote “American Jewish Center,” and Nasser responded “pumpkin sounds good now.”

The court filing says Person 1 regularly consulted the father of a “local Islamic extremist ideologue” about when to commit a “good deed.”

Phone records also showed members of the group looked up information on various mass killings, including the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting and the deadly 2025 New Orleans truck attack.