CLEVELAND, Ohio June 3 2018  – For the second time in six years, the FBI reported having prevented a home-grown terrorist from carrying out an attack designed to cause wide-scale death and destruction in Northeast Ohio.

At a Monday news conference, the FBI in Cleveland and the Joint Terrorism Task Force announced they had arrested a Maple Heights man who was plotting to help al-Qaida detonate a bomb in downtown Cleveland during the Fourth of July.

Demetrius N. Pitts, 48, a Muslim who the FBI reported had been radicalized in the United States, was charged with attempting to “provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.”

The investigation of Pitts has similarities to the FBI’s 2012 investigation that foiled a bridge-bombing plot. In both cases, the FBI used undercover investigators posing as would-be accomplices and promising to provide the explosives.

In the 2012 case, five men connected to the Occupy Cleveland movement were found guilty of trying to blow up the Ohio 82 bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. They are now serving prison terms ranging from six to 11 1/2 years.

The FBI learned about Pitts’ disdain for America on Dec. 31, 2015, after discovering suspicious Facebook activity under the name Abdur Raheem Rafeeq, later determined to be Pitts, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

In 2017, Pitts “expressed a desire to recruit people to kill Americans that were against Muslims and also stated he would have no remorse if he killed in the name of religion,” according to the affidavit.

Further investigation of Pitts by the FBI lead to his meeting on June 15, 2018, in Willoughby with an undercover FBI employee posing as an al-Qaida “brother,” and eventually to Pitts scouting downtown Cleveland for a location where al-Qaida could detonate a bomb on the Fourth of July when people gathered for fireworks.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen Anthony said Pitts had the “desire and intent” to commit the act, although he declined to say whether Pitts could actually have made or acquired a bomb himself.

“Law enforcement cannot sit back and wait for Mr. Pitts to commit a violent attack,” Anthony said during the news conference. “We don’t have the luxury of hoping an individual decides not to harm someone or get others to act, especially when his continued, repeated intentions were to do exactly that.”

Cleveland Police Calvin Williams said the city already planned stepped-up security on the Fourth as a matter of course, and that additional officers won’t necessarily be deployed. He said police will be on a heightened state of alert and that the public needs to be vigilant.

Within hours of the news conference, praise for the FBI investigation poured in from Ohio politicians in Cleveland and in Washington.

“This plot underscores the threat we continue to face from home-grown terrorism,” U.S. Sen. Rob Portman said in a statement.  “I applaud the FBI and its law enforcement partners for their hard work to stop this threat and ensure that everyone can have a safe and secure Fourth.”

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson issued a similar statement. “I want to thank the FBI and all the members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force – men and women whose primary goal is to make Northeast Ohio safe,” Jackson said. “These Law Enforcement Partners continue to secure us against those who seek to disrupt our way of life through violence and the threat of terrorist acts.”

Pitts has an extensive criminal record. He was found guilty of robbing a woman in Cincinnati in 1989 and was charged with domestic violence the following year after being paroled from prison. He pleaded no contest to the charge. He later spent more than 10 years in prison for robbing Bangs Market, a grocery store in Cincinnati. Two prior convictions enhanced his sentence. He had further run-ins with the law in Columbus and Philadelphia.

Pitts has few apparent ties to Cleveland. He was in Northeast Ohio because he was staying at Broadway Care Center, a physical rehabilitation facility in Maple Heights, according to interviews and police records.

Earlier this year, Pitts began to talk about joining al-Qaida and harming members of the U.S. military, according to the affidavit in his case.

Pitts proposed packing a van with explosives and detonating the explosives near July 4 crowds, the affidavit states. He also proposed putting explosives in toy-size, remote-controlled cars and rolling them under law enforcement vehicles or giving the cars to children of military personnel.

Pitts also spoke of carrying out attacks in Philadelphia, his hometown, and possibly in San Francisco, the affidavit states.

Days before his arrest, Pitts turned over a cellphone that an undercover investigator gave him to photograph or film potential targets, according to the affidavit. The undercover investigator also gave Pitts an RTA bus pass to conduct surveillance.

The phone contained pictures of Voinovich Park, the U.S. Coast Guard Station, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building, and St. John’s Cathedral.

The phone also included two videos of Pitts pledging his allegiance to al-Qaida, the affidavit says.

Then, on June 30, the day before Pitts was arrested, one of the undercover investigators sent Pitts a coded message informing him that “there would indeed be a large explosion in front of the U.S. Coast Guard Station” on July 4, according to the affidavit.

As they did in the Pitts case, undercover FBI investigators played a crucial role in the arrest of the would-be bridge-bombers six years earlier.

In that case, one of the terrorists, Joshua Stafford, placed what he thought was a real bomb concealed inside a lunch box, at the base of the bridge and tried to detonate it with a cellphone. Both the bomb, which was fake, and the phone had been provided by an undercover agent.

Cleveland terrorism suspect’s penchant for violence stretches nearly 30 years: The man who FBI agents say planned to plant a van of explosives during the Fourth of July fireworks in downtown Cleveland has a history of violence that stretches back nearly three decades.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issues statement on foiled Cleveland terrorist attack: “Each one of us owes a debt of gratitude to the agents, analysts, and prosecutors who work day and night to identify those who would do this nation harm, including those committed to supporting violence in the name of foreign terrorist organizations,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a Justice Department statement on the arrest of Demetrius Pitts

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