Last week, the RCMP arrested an alleged terror suspect in Ormstown, Que., and residents of the small community are still reeling.
According to court documents filed in New York, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan allegedly hoped to commit the largest attack on American soil since 9/11.
“When you talk terrorist, and you talk ISIS in the same sentence In Ormstown?!” said Gail Elliot, who witnessed two arrests right outside her house.
Another witness, Elizabeth Henshaw, described seeing a woman and a man in handcuffs on Eliiot’s front porch.
“The car was right there. And we watched them search it afterwards. They came away with a bag of evidence of some kind,” Henshaw said.
In a complaint filed by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Khan is a supporter of the terror group ISIS and planned to use automatic and semi-automatic weapons to carry out mass shootings at Jewish religious centres in the US.
Khan allegedly texted, “if we succeed with our plan this would be the largest attack on US soil since 9/11.”
The Conservative party pushed for an answer about how the accused entered Canada, and the federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller responded on Tuesday.
“Mohammed Khan is a Pakistani national who entered Canada in May or was issued a visa in May of 2023 and entered Canada on the 24th of June of the same year. This is all that I’ll be commenting on this individual.”
Authorities believe Khan was headed toward the Rodham Road crossing.
While some residents are surprised about the scope of the planned attack, they said Ormiston is about 20 minutes from the US border.
“I mean with our location near the border, it’s on the other hand not surprising either,” Elliot said.