Christian Sturdivant | 18-year-old charged with planning New 12 months’s terror assault in NC ‘instantly impressed’ by ISIS, FBI says

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The FBI mentioned it “thwarted a possible” New 12 months’s Eve terror assault in North Carolina.

The Justice Division charged Christian Sturdivant with allegedly trying to hold out a knife and hammer assault in opposition to random people on New 12 months’s Eve in assist of ISIS, in accordance with courtroom information unsealed on Friday.

“Due to our nice companions for working with us and undoubtedly saving lives,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on social media.

Sturdivant, who’s a U.S. citizen and turned 18 final month, allegedly deliberate to focus on a grocery retailer or a Burger King in North Carolina with a knife assault and allegedly mentioned the U.S. would pay for his or her retaliatory assault on ISIS targets after two nationwide guardsmen have been killed in December, in accordance with the courtroom paperwork.

Sturdivant started speaking on social media with somebody who he thought was supportive of his plans however who was truly an undercover FBI worker, the affidavit mentioned.

Russ Ferguson, the U.S. Lawyer for western North Carolina, declined to call the grocery retailer and fast-food restaurant that have been allegedly focused, citing the continued investigation. However he mentioned each have been in Mint Hill, a small bed room neighborhood of Charlotte.

The affidavit says Sturdivant had been on the FBI’s radar in January 2022, when he was a minor, after officers discovered that he had been involved with an IS member in Europe and had obtained directions to decorate in all black, knock on individuals’s doorways and commit assaults with a hammer.

The investigation into Sturdivant began in 2022, when he was a minor, in accordance with courtroom information.

Sturdivant began on the web studying ISIS materials, going to ISIS web sites, making TikTok movies and ultimately reaching out to what he thought was a member of ISIS. In actuality, that individual was an secret agent with the NYPD, investigators informed reporters at a information convention Friday.

He pledged his allegiance to ISISI with that secret agent and he disclosed his plans to “do jihad quickly,” in accordance with Russ Ferguson, the U.S. Lawyer for the Western District of North Carolina.

Sturdivant allegedly met a second undercover with the FBI, who he additionally thought was an ISIS participant and began to be very particular along with his plans.

“The truth that alongside the best way on this in depth planning of this assault, he encountered not one however two undercover officers ought to make the general public really feel very, excellent and really secure,” Ferguson mentioned.

When authorities searched his residence, they are saying they discovered a handwritten doc titled “The New 12 months’s Assault” through which “it listed a purpose of stabbing as many civilians as potential and complete variety of victims as 20 or 21,” the courtroom paperwork allege.

Authorities additionally discovered an alleged handwritten be aware professing a plea for Jihad, the courtroom paperwork mentioned.

Sturdivant, in accordance with his alleged notes, was in search of “pure destruction of America and the west,” the courtroom paperwork mentioned.

The FBI alleged he was speaking with an alleged member of ISIS on the time who inspired him to hold out a knife assault in opposition to his neighbor “with a hammer and knife.”

He was nearly out the door “wearing all black,” when he was restrained by his grandfather, courtroom information alleged.

The suspect’s grandfather works at a grocery retailer and is a Christian Minister within the Charlotte space, in accordance with courtroom information. Sturdivant labored at a Burger King, in accordance with courtroom information.

Final month, the FBI was alerted to his social media web page after he allegedly posted threats, the courtroom paperwork mentioned.

In a single submit, the FBI alleged the language was “constant” with ISIS’s historic apply” of calling for the extermination of “non-believers,” in accordance with courtroom paperwork.

The FBI mentioned that on Dec. 13, whereas the suspect was speaking to an undercover worker, he acknowledged he was a “soldier of the state,” referring to ISIS, in accordance with the courtroom doc.

On the identical day, Sturdivant posted about quickly “assembly Allah,” the courtroom doc alleged. The FBI alleged this submit was a coded reference to ISIS, in accordance with the courtroom doc.

The subsequent day, Sturdivant allegedly despatched the undercover an image of a hammer and knife and “making the hand signal” of the Shahada, an Islamic oath, the courtroom doc alleged.

The FBI alleged that the image had been utilized in earlier ISIS assaults. The suspect allegedly informed the undercover on the identical day that he was making the plan for a yr, the courtroom doc mentioned.

“I am ready for loss of life,” he allegedly informed the undercover in a message on Dec. 15, in accordance with the courtroom doc.

The suspect mentioned he could be concentrating on “Christian pagans and lgbtq,” the courtroom doc alleged. He mentioned he has a code identify for the day, so when it occurs, ISIS can declare duty, in accordance with the courtroom doc.

The suspect allegedly tried to accumulate a gun from an undercover FBI agent a day after Christmas, all of the whereas speaking about planning an assault, in accordance with the courtroom doc.

“ON or about December 27, 2025, Sturdivant informed the secret agent he was getting ready for martyrdom,” the criticism alleges.

Throughout that search of his residence, investigators allegedly discovered a hammer and a be aware outlining the 2 alleged assaults, in accordance with the courtroom doc.

One be aware was titled “Burger King Jihad” and the plan B was a grocery retailer assault, the courtroom doc alleged.

Sturdivant allegedly wrote that he would go into the toilet to placed on a masks and perform the assault with a knife, in accordance with the courtroom doc.

Sturdivant was arrested on New 12 months’s Eve, made his preliminary look in federal courtroom this morning and the case now goes by means of the judicial course of, however he’s going through a most sentence of 20 years, in accordance with investigators.

The FBI took Sturdivant to a state Justice of the Peace decide to attempt to have him involuntarily dedicated as a result of he had threatened not solely different individuals’s lives however within the course of mentioned he had deliberate to die by a police officer taking pictures him, investigators mentioned.

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The state Justice of the Peace decide denied involuntary dedication, however the FBI didn’t surrender and continued to construct the case to cost him and detain him, in accordance with investigators. Lawyer info for Sturdivant was not instantly obtainable.

On the rise

Chris Swecker, the previous head of felony investigations for the FBI in North Carolina throughout 9/11, says incidents like these are on the rise.

“Younger individuals like this, or people who find themselves offended and bitter, they’ve latched onto this ISIS ideology, which will be extraordinarily deadly,” he mentioned. “They do not appear succesful, however they’re the lone wolves that we worry.”

In January 2025, FBI brokers arrested a Durham man at RDU who was about to board a flight to Morocco to affix ISIS.

The ABC11 I-Workforce additionally reported on the arrest of a Excessive Level man in Might who allegedly had ties to the violent extremist community referred to as 764.

“They do not should smuggle a terrorist cell into the USA and do all of the sophisticated issues. They will simply indoctrinate a youngster or a disaffected individual right here in the USA and switch them right into a weapon,” mentioned Swecker.

Swecker says this serves as an necessary reminder for households to have conversations with their youngsters in regards to the risks that lurk on-line.