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New Haven County resident Kevin McCormick, age 29, of Hamden, admitted to trying to join the terrorist organization in Bridgeport Federal Court on Thursday, Jan. 12, according to the US Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut.
Between August and October 2019, McCormick repeatedly told others of his desire to travel to Syria to lend support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).
In one of these conversations, he said, "I gotta fight bro, because those people, Abu Masa and ISIL, they fought for me bro, I know it, I can feel it, in my heart. So it’s my time to fight . . . It just is what it is bro, it’s just my – it’s just my time to go bro," according to court documents.
He also said, "I need Islamic law, I need, that’s what I need, because if I have these things, it’s gonna to be very hard to kill me," according to officials.
After these conversations, on Oct. 12, 2019, he tried to board a plane from Connecticut to Jamaica, from which he planned to travel to Syria. However, he was prevented from doing so by the US Department of Homeland Security.
A few days later on Oct. 19, 2019, McCormick then created a video in which he pledged allegiance to ISIS and its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. He also bought a plane ticket from Toronto, Canada to Amman, Jordan.
Finally, on Oct. 21, 2019, McCormick was arrested after traveling to a small private airport in Connecticut where he was planning to board a plane to Toronto.
He has been detained since this date and is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday, April 6.
Officially charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, McCormick faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
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