Kansas Bomb Plot Trio Imprisoned for attempting to kill Somali Muslims
Three men were sentenced Friday to at least 25 years in federal prison for attempting to blow up an apartment complex in western Kansas where Somali Muslims lived, a plot that unnerved that refugee community.
Patrick Eugene Stein and Curtis Allen of Kansas and Gavin Wright of Oklahoma chose the apartment complex in Garden City, a city of 26,000, partly because it contained a mosque, said the authorities.
“Today’s sentence is a significant victory against hate crimes and domestic terrorism.”
This was said by the acting US Attorney General Matthew Whitaker in a news release Friday from the Justice Department, CNN reported. He also said:
“The defendants, in this case, acted with clear premeditation in an attempt to kill innocent people on the basis of their religion and national origin. That’s not just illegal it’s morally repugnant.”
During the trial, prosecutors said the men began plotting an attack after the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida. The men referred to Muslims as cockroaches and the prosecutors explained:
“Described in the most extreme and violent terms what they planned to do to them.”
The Somalis, who settled in Garden City because of employment in the meatpacking industry, appreciate the support they've received in the town and do not intend to harm anyone, according to one woman who spoke after the sentences were handed down.
Ifrah Farah, a member of the Somali community, according to CNN affiliate KWCH in Wichita.
"Please, we need peace and love…Because we came here for better lives. We are refugees. We live here. We are not bad people. We love everybody."
The plotted attack is not the first to target Muslims in the United States. Last week, police arrested four men for plotting to bomb Islamberg, a Muslim community in rural New York.
See also: Duas for Protection
