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BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A Howard County man who allegedly was leaving the country to join the ISIS terror organization was arrested at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport this week, according to the FBI.
Michael Teekaye Jr., 21, was arrested on Monday after he went through security.
The FBI alleges a terrorist organization paid for his flight.
Teekaye has a history of mental health issues.
WJZ visited Teekaye’s family home in Hanover Thursday for comment, but no one answered the door.
Teekaye is represented by a federal public defender.
Images in court documents obtained by WJZ show Teekaye at a shooting range in Severn over the summer.
He reportedly told an undercover agent he was training to be part of a terror organization and wanted to join ISIS in Somalia.
“The facts will have to play out so we understand completely what was going on here,” said Professor Michael Greenberger, who founded the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland. “At the present time, there is enough information for all of us to be concerned, but we need more information to determine whether this would have happened but for him being lured by the FBI or whether he was inclined to do this from the get-go.”
Court records show a diagnosis of schizophrenia and a past incident where Teekaye stood outside an elementary school in Columbia, Howard County, masked and holding a knife. He told police he wanted to fight a classmate.
Teekaye is still on probation for that incident.
And because of that, he was unable to buy a weapon when he tried to do so.
Federal prosecutors provided an image of him trying to make a purchase at a local gun shop.
Teekaye had been hospitalized twice for his mental health issues under emergency petitions.
In a transcript of a conversation with an undercover agent last year, authorities said Teekaye threatened an attack on Jewish people and supporters of Israel in Columbia.
Authorities detailed other conversations with undercover agents and said they found the machete he posted in a picture on social media—and al Qaeda banners at his home in Hanover following the arrest.
The FBI alleged a Somali ISIS fighter booked a ticket for Teekaye and planned to meet him in Africa.
Police said Teekaye was combative at his BWI arrest and told them, “You will never stop me. Jihad will never stop.”
Professor Greenberger noted the FBI has been under fire to make more progress against terror organizations and said this arrest may not be the most consequential.
“There is an expectation that the FBI is going to be going deeper and finding people who are more of a threat from the get-go to the United States than someone such as this. I want to make clear, this kind of person if the facts are correct, can’t be ignored, but this is not the big fish that all of us are hoping the FBI will be able to capture,” Greenberger said.
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