A Missouri man who had allegedly planned to bomb a hospital was fatally shot this week after he “decided to accelerate his plan” to stop the government from introducing social distancing measures amid the coronavirus pandemic, federal authorities confirmed on Wednesday, according to Fox News.
36-year old Timothy Wilson, allegedly a member of the US National Socialist Movement, a known racist group, was injured on Tuesday in Belton, a suburb of Kansas City, after FBI agents attempted to arrest him in the course of a domestic terrorism investigation, according to Fox News, citing a statement released on Wednesday by Special Agent Timothy Langan, who oversees the agency's Kansas City office.
Wilson was armed, according to the statement, and was injured and later died in hospital. It was not specified how he suffered his fatal injury ansd no details were provided regarding what was said to be a shooting incident.
FBI officials described Wilson as a potential violent extremist, influenced by religious, racial, and anti-state beliefs.
The suspect had organised a plan over a period of months to conduct a bombing of an unnamed Kansas City-area hospital with a “vehicle-borne” improvised explosive “to cause severe harm and mass casualties," the FBI said.
Wilson had allegedly collected material for the construction of a weapon while FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force had him under watch. As part of the agency sting operation, Wilson was looking to pick up what he believed to be a bomb on Tuesday when agents tried to arrest him.
FBI agents confirmed that the bomb was not real, but did clarify the details of the event.
They said that the incident was “an agent-involved shooting” and the FBI’s Inspection Division will be conducting an investigation in line with agency policy.
Missouri, as all other US states, has been struck by the coronavirus pandemic, with 356 people confirmed infected and eight dead as of Wednesday, the state health department reported.
