An 18-year-old Hillside, Ill. man accused of attempting to obtain and detonate a car bomb at a busy Chicago bar is scheduled to appear in court Monday.
Adel Daoud was arrested Friday by the FBI after months of observation, during which time he met with undercover agents he thought were helping him obtain and detonate a car bomb, the Associated Press reports. Daoud had been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to damage and destroy a building with an explosive, using a nonoperational device given to him as part of a sting operation.
Police have not released information about the intended target, but Mike Feirstein, whose family owns Cal's Liquors at Wells and Van Buren, told the Chicago Sun-Times he believes his bar and concert venue, along with neighboring bar Cactus, was Daoud's focus. A Cal's bartender told the newspaper he saw approximately 15 undercover agents surround the bar around 8 p.m.
The bar sits at a busy intersection adjacent to elevated train tracks, and ABC Chicago reports that about 20 people were inside Cal's at the time of the incident. Cactus next door was presumably also busy at the time Daoud thought he was detonating an actual bomb, according to the station.
The FBI told CNN that Daoud and an undercover agent drove together to the bar they intended to blow up, and during the drive led the agent in a prayer that their attack succeeded in causing destruction and killing many people.
"We strongly denounce these planned acts of violence in Chicago. We categorically reject terrorism," Haris Ahmed, director of public affairs at the Chicago West Chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Glen Ellyn, told the Suburban Life. "Individuals like Adel Daoud fail to understand that terrorism of any form is against Islamic teachings and practice of the Holy Prophet Muhammad."
Daoud is being held without bond at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, and will likely be represented by a court-appointed attorney or his own lawyer at his preliminary hearing Monday afternoon, according to the Wall Street Journal.