Man killed during an arrest had purchased explosive materials for use in a domestic terrorist plot.
The FBI issued a formal statement describing the attempted probable cause arrest of Timothy Wilson, of Missouri.
He had been the subject of a long-running counter-terror investigation. In the process of his arrest, he was shot. Whether he was shot by law-enforcement or if it was self-inflicted remains unclear.
He was taken to a local hospital, but he did not recover from his injuries and has died.
BREAKING: In a statement tonight, FBI says a Missouri man they tried to arrest yesterday who was planning to car bomb a health care facility amid the COVID-19 crisis has died after injuries inflicted during the arrest. Target of long-running domestic terror investigation. pic.twitter.com/VZhiUgDWgN
— Alex Mallin (@alex_mallin) March 25, 2020
The FBI said Wilson was the subject of a monthslong domestic terrorism investigation, which revealed him to be a potentially violent extremist, motivated by racial, religious and anti-government animus.
Investigators said Wilson was actively planning to commit an act of domestic terrorism, a bombing, and decided to accelerate his plan to use a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. The FBI said Wilson considered various targets and ultimately settled on a hospital in an attempt to harm many people.
“Wilson had taken the necessary steps to acquire materials needed to build an explosive device. At all times during the investigation, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force kept close track of Wilson in order to protect public safety,” the FBI said in a news release.
With anxiety levels already amped up quite high, it will come as some comfort for the public to know this key detail from the press release:
In the image above, you can see it in the second paragraph, third line: ‘THERE WAS NO ACTUAL BOMB.’
The would-be terrorist THOUGHT there was. But he was deceived.
Even in the midst of this crisis, the good guys are still out there, doing their job.
