We're thankful that this New Year's Eve passed in relative peace. It's a welcome change from last year, when 2025 started with a terrorist attack in New Orleans.
Texas native Shamsud Din-Jabbar, 42, drove his truck through a crowd celebrating the New Year on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing fourteen and injuring at least 30 more. ISIS inspired him, and IEDs were found at the scene, along with an ISIS flag.
On December 30, Townhall reported that the FBI had thwarted a planned New Year's Eve terror attack in Texas. Authorities arrested 21-year-old Michael Garza, Jr. of Midlothian. They said Garza provided an undercover agent "bomb-making materials, cryptocurrency, and detailed instructions" as part of a planned ISIS-inspired attack targeting the New Year's celebrations.
Garza's arrest came roughly two weeks after the FBI stopped another New Year's Eve terror plot planned by the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), a Left-wing radical group that planned attacks in New Orleans. One of the suspects is Micah Legnon, a "transgender" former Marine. TILF is a "pro-Palestine, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government" group looking to foment "revolutionary change in government." Legnon wanted to "recreate Waco," and his group believes that "direct action" (read: violence) is the way to make change.
Now the FBI has revealed it stopped yet another New Year's Eve terror plot, this time in North Carolina.
#BREAKING The #FBI and our law enforcement partners thwarted a potential terrorist attack on New Year's Eve in North Carolina. The subject was directly inspired to act by ISIS. The @USAO_WDNC and FBI Special Agent in Charge will announce details at an 11:30 am news conference in… pic.twitter.com/APsaKTdeuF
— FBI Charlotte (@FBICharlotte) January 2, 2026
FBI Director said the attack was also ISIS-inspired.
Potential ISIS-inspired attack disrupted.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) January 2, 2026
Today’s announcement marks the second public instance in a matter of weeks where the FBI and LEO partners stepped in and stopped an alleged New Years Eve attacker before they could harm innocent people.
Thank you to our @FBI personnel… pic.twitter.com/yunPiEYCtx
"Today’s announcement marks the second public instance in a matter of weeks where the FBI and LEO partners stepped in and stopped an alleged New Year's Eve attacker before they could harm innocent people," Patel wrote on X. "Thank you to our @FBI personnel @FBICharlotte and our great partners at NYPD, the Mint Hill PD in NC, @TheJusticeDept and more for acting quickly and saving lives."
The plot targeted a North Carolina grocery store and fast food restaurant.
WATCH LIVE: FBI holds news conference on thwarted potential New Year's Eve terror attack https://t.co/u08CYU7IRW
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 2, 2026
In that press conference, Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, said, "I'm here to announce in partnership with the Mint Hill Police Department and the FBI that we have foiled a terrorist attack that was planned to take place on New Year's Eve in Mint Hill, North Carolina."
"It was a very well-planned, thoughtful attack," Ferguson said.
According to Fox News, 18-year-old Christian Sturdivant of Mint Hill, NC, was arrested and charged with "attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization."
Prosecutors alleged that Sturdivant began communicating with an undercover agent, whom he believed to be affiliated with ISIS, and that Sturdivant claimed, "I will do jihad soon" to the undercover agent and detailed plans to attack a grocery store and a fast food location in Mint Hill.
Ferguson also told Fox News, "He talked about where he was planning to do this attack, which was at a grocery store and a fast food restaurant in Mint Hill. Places that we go every day and don't think that we may be harmed, He was preparing for jihad, and innocent people were going to die. And we were very, very fortunate they did not."
As of right now, Sturdivant remains in federal custody and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if he's convicted.
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