Religious Intolerance

Heroic Taco Bell Worker Thwarts Would-Be Mass Shooter Allegedly Targeting Place Of Worship

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A Taco Bell employee turned his coworker into police, thwarting a potential mass shooting at a Chicago-area Hindu temple.

Palatine police arrested Alexandros Paporakis, 19, and charged him with making a terrorist threat and unlawful possession of weapons on Oct. 11, ABC 7 Chicago reported. The coworker at a Taco Bell in Arlington Heights, Illinois said he had been in contact with the would-be gunman as Paporakis lapsed into a manic episode and sent him a video of a rifle and a photo of him wearing a tactical vest.

Paporakis sent his coworker a video of a rifle and a manifesto filled with racial and ethnic slurs against Jewish people, black people and people of Indian descent, The Hill reported. The manifesto, titled “Why I Fought: A.K.A. (Aurora Shooter’s Manifesto),” outlined a plan to kill as many Hindus as possible at local temple in Aurora. The coworker reported this threat to the police, who then arrested Paporakis at his home.

Police discovered a rifle, multiple loaded magazines, hundreds of additional rounds of ammunition and tactical equipment at the residence, according to the outlet.

“We are grateful for the FBI’s assistance in the subsequent investigation and commend the individual who initially came forward with this information,” Palatine Police Chief William Nord said in a news conference Wednesday, The Hill reported.

In Paporakis’ alleged manifesto, he described himself as a “sociopathic white supremacist Neo Nazi filled with hatred, fantasizing about mass murder nearly every day,” the Hill reported. According to Paporakis’ coworkers at Taco Bell, something was wrong, and Paporakis told them that Sunday would be a “very special day.”

The Palatine Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Daily Caller News Foundation on the nature of the tip they received from the concerned Taco Bell employee who received the video and manifesto.

“What we have actually found is that in almost every case, an individual who is planning an attack will exhibit behaviors, either online or in the physical world, that represent an articulation of intent to engage in violence,” former DHS Intel Chief John Cohen told ABC 7 Chicago. “It’s highly likely that were it not for the quick action and the investigative activities of the local law enforcement authorities, we very may well have had yet another mass shooting in this country.”