Milwaukee Man Arrested After Planning Mass Shooting at Masonic Temple: FBI

A 23-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested by the FBI after he allegedly plotted to kill dozens of people inside a Masonic temple in an attack that he said would be “known all over the world,” authorities said Tuesday.

Samy Mohamed Hamzeh is accused of buying machine guns and a silencer from undercover FBI agents to carry out his mass shooting, which he devised with two other unknown sources, the Department of Justice said. He was arrested immediately after the sale and charged with illegally possessing machine guns.

Hamzeh, who had been under investigation since September 2015, was allegedly recorded boasting about how they would “eliminate everyone” in the temple and hoped to gun down at least 30 people. He toured the temple on Jan. 19 to take note of meeting schedules and where people could be found, authorities said.

“Thirty is excellent. If I got out, after killing thirty people, I will be happy . . . because these 30 will terrify the world,” he allegedly said to his conspirators, according to officials.

“It is difficult to calculate the injury and loss of life that was prevented by concerned citizens coming forward and by the tireless efforts of the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force,” Acting United States Attorney Gregory Haanstad said in a statement.