CLEVELAND — A Cleveland man has been arrested after allegedly attempting to kidnap a police officer and posting threats on social media.
Christian Ferguson, 20, engaged in several violent and extremists posts on a digital communication platform, according to the criminal complaint.
According to the complaint, he discussed his desire to call police to report a fake crime so that officers would respond. Ferguson allegedly posted several times about tactical options for killing multiple targets, disposal of their bodies, plans to ambush law enforcement, kill them, rob them of their weapons and start an uprising.
Officials said that as a result of the conversations in chat rooms by Ferguson, he met on several occasions with people to further discuss his plan in order to see it to fruition.
According to the indictment, he conducted reconnaissance and dry runs, bringing a rifle along with him.
Targeting a national park, officials say he believed four federal officers would arrive and said that if that many officers responded to the actual event, they would likely have to kill them all.
The FBI monitored all of the meetings Ferguson held.
Ferguson was arrested without incident on May 8.
No court date has been set.
