Teen admits plotting to kill pope during Philadelphia trip

April 04, 2017 - A New Jersey teenager has admitted plotting to kill Pope Francis when he visited Philadelphia in 2015, federal prosecutors announced Monday. Santos Colon Jr., 17, pleaded guilty as an adult to attempting to provide material support to terrorists. The Lindenwold resident faces up to 15 years in prison, but a sentencing date hasn't been scheduled.

Colon admitted plotting the assassination during a nearly two-month period in the weeks leading up to the pope's visit in September 2015, federal prosecutors said. The plot, which wasn't carried out, involved using a sniper to shoot the pope during a Mass and setting off explosive devices nearby, they said.

Colon engaged someone he thought would be the sniper but was an undercover FBI employee, prosecutors said. He engaged in target reconnaissance with an FBI confidential source and instructed the source to buy materials to make explosive devices, they said.

FBI agents arrested Colon in 2015. Prosecutors declined to comment on a motive for the plot or why the pope was targeted. They said the investigation is ongoing. The pope visited Philadelphia for events on Sept. 26-27, 2015. He celebrated Mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where hundreds of thousands of people gathered.

An after-hours voicemail message left for Santos' lawyer, Richard Coughlin, who heads the federal public defender's office in Camden, was not returned Monday.

Sounds to me like he comes under the 'nutjob' category, rather than actual terrorism?

CAMDEN - A South Jersey 17-year-old admitted Monday he plotted to kill Pope Francis during the papal visit to Philadelphia in September 2015, authorities said.

Santos Colon Jr. of Lindenwold intended to have a sniper shoot the pope during a papal Mass, while explosives went off in the surrounding area, the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey said.

"Colon engaged someone he believed would be the sniper, but in reality was an undercover FBI employee," the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"Colon engaged in target reconnaissance with an FBI confidential source and instructed the source to purchase materials to make explosive devices," the statement said.

Colon said he planned the attack from June 30 to Aug. 14, 2015, according to the statement.

The pope visited Philadelphia on Sept. 26-27 for the World Meeting of Families Congress, drawing huge crowds to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and other sites.

Colon, also known as Ahmad Shakoor, initially was charged as a juvenile under a sealed complaint, court records show. He pleaded guilty as an adult to attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

His parents attended the hearing before U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman in federal court, Camden, court records show.

In a plea agreement, Colon noted he has been a patient at a mental hospital or institution, but does not believe he currently is "mentally ill or mentally incompetent in any respect."

Under the agreement, federal authorities agreed not to initiate other charges against Colon for other alleged offenses. These included "attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization (namely the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant)" from April through Aug. 13 of 2015 and "attempting to obtain and use a weapon of mass destruction."

According the U.S. Attorney's Office, Colon faces a potential maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/crime/2017/04/03/santos-colon-pope-attack/99999202/

In a plea agreement, Colon noted he has been a patient at a mental hospital or institution, but does not believe he currently is "mentally ill or mentally incompetent in any respect."

Right......

Colon, also known as Ahmad Shakoor

Santos Colon is or was, as I recall, a famous person in Puerto Rico .... and Ahmad Shakoor was a Pakistani cricketer.