FBI Stops ISIS-Inspired Plot in Butler County; Rifle and 190 Rounds Seized

Jonathan Hunter Kramer, 21, of Valencia, Pennsylvania, has been charged with receiving a firearm and ammunition knowing or having reasonable cause to believe they would be used to commit a federal crime of terrorism, including material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

FBI agents arrested Kramer on Saturday, Sept. 12, as he returned to a hotel in Cranberry Township with three 30-round rifle magazines and five boxes of rifle ammunition. A search of the room recovered a semiautomatic rifle, additional magazines, a bipod, a scope, an entrenchment tool, a prayer rug, pepper spray, and about 190 rounds. Agents later seized approximately 30 knives and a handwritten note from his parents’ home: “DoNt look For me[.] IDK what I did buT I cant live In constant Fear[.]”

Valencia is in Butler County, the same county where Thomas Matthew Crooks tried to assassinate President Donald Trump on July 13, 2024. Officials have not tied Kramer to that attack. They have said he was preparing an ISIS-inspired mass shooting and that they did not identify a final target before they moved in.

“Kramer was taken into custody just as he appeared to be preparing for a mass shooting that could have taken many lives, having already secured a rifle and approximately 190 rounds of ammunition for what he called his ‘mission,’” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the Pittsburgh field office and Joint Terrorism Task Force stopped the plot before it reached a crowd. “The subject in this case was allegedly plotting a violent attack in support of ISIS — engaging with ISIS propaganda online, building attack concepts, and repeatedly expressing extremist rhetoric — all while acquiring weapons believed to be in preparation of the attack,” Patel said. He cited bureau figures of 1,097 terrorist disruptions, a 20 percent increase over the 18 months before the current administration, plus higher foreign-terrorist-organization arrest and dismantlement rates.

Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “The Department of Justice will relentlessly pursue anyone who seeks to terrorize the American people.”

The investigation dates to 2023, when Kramer was a minor. After he left the Pathways juvenile facility in Oil City on March 19, 2026, an anonymous tip told the FBI he was receiving “mysterious” packages and reconnecting with old contacts. Agents say he used the online name “Hamza Al Rashid,” claimed ISIS affiliation, offered explosive manuals, and said he was preparing a “mission” but still needed a weapon. FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Richard Evanchec said Kramer “recorded a pledge of allegiance” and shared propaganda on selecting targets, including schools, concerts, and nightclubs.

On Sept. 12, agents watched him leave home with a bag, buy a disposable phone, meet a person in a Gibsonia Walmart parking lot and obtain a long black bag large enough for a rifle, pay $450 cash for a week at the Cranberry Park Hotel, and visit a Dunham’s Sporting Goods counter. Evanchec said Kramer “accelerated his mobilization,” which is why agents arrested him that day rather than continue surveillance.

Kramer, a 2023 Mars High School graduate, was booked into the Butler County Jail, made an initial appearance Monday, and appeared in federal court Wednesday in a red jumpsuit and shackles. Prosecutors asked that he be held without bond. The Justice Department has not named a co-conspirator in the parking-lot rifle transfer.

The arrest came the day after the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Eisenberg noted that while the country marked that date, “our law enforcement partners were working to protect our country from the continued threat of terrorism.”