On Thursday, authorities said two young people were taken into custody in connection with an alleged plan to attack a Jewish congregation in Houston, with one court filing describing the objective as killing as many Jews as possible by driving through a worship service.
In North Carolina court records, 18-year-old Angelina Han Hicks of Lexington was being held in the Davidson County jail under a $10 million bond. Hicks was arrested Wednesday and formally charged with conspiring with two “male subjects” to commit murder and assault against members of Congregation Beth Israel in Houston, with the charges tied to an April 21, 2028, target date, according to the warrants.
The FBI said on Thursday in a social media post that a juvenile was also arrested in relation to the plot and charged in Harris County, Texas. The FBI did not immediately specify whether the juvenile named in the case was one of the two male subjects referenced in Hicks’ warrants, noting that the warrants listed only the men’s first names and gave their last names as “unknown.”
In Houston, the Houston Police Department said a 16-year-old was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit capital murder after the department learned of a threat directed toward certain Jewish institutions on Wednesday. The department said it worked with the FBI and the Houston school district police department on the arrest, and it did not identify Congregation Beth Israel in its news release.
A U.S. District Court judge, Carlton Terry, wrote in the Wednesday decision explaining why Hicks’ detention was necessary. The judge wrote, in part, that the alleged “conspiracy is to kill as many Jews as possible by driving through a congregation at a synagogue.” Terry also wrote that allowing a co-conspirator the chance to communicate with the individuals who could carry out the plan “puts lives at risk.”
Prosecutors and investigators said the case began after a tip reached North Carolina law enforcement. The FBI said its Charlotte Joint Terrorism Task Force began the investigation Tuesday evening after that tip, and it said the investigation was continuing.
While Hicks’ warrants describe the alleged attack as occurring two years after the charges, Alan Martin, a senior assistant district attorney covering Davidson County, said in an interview that there had been “some concern that there could be an imminent event” targeting the Houston synagogue. Martin did not immediately disclose a possible motive in the North Carolina court documents.
Authorities said attempts to contact Hicks’ court-appointed attorney by phone were unsuccessful Thursday. The lawyer, Chad Freeman, told the Houston Chronicle that the case was in its early stages and said Hicks’ youth could be a factor in her defense. Freeman also said he expects to involve “numerous experts” to examine investigatory and possible forensic matters, and he said her next scheduled hearing is May 13.
In Houston, the potential threats communicated to Congregation Beth Israel prompted the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston to say the campus closed on Wednesday “out of an abundance of caution.” The federation said the campus reopened Thursday.
The case adds to a series of security responses for Jewish institutions in the United States following a recent vehicle attack at a synagogue in Michigan. The FBI said Ayman Ghazali, a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen, drove a pickup truck into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield on March 12, striking a security guard and exchanging gunfire before fatally shooting himself. Ghazali learned a week before the attack that four family members were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.