KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 20-year-old Florida man has been arrested on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack using explosives at a Kansas City 9/11 memorial event this weekend.
KMBC reported that FBI raided Joshua Goldberg’s home and took him into custody. He’s accused of sending instructions on how to make a pressure cooker bomb. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
According to court documents, the target was Sunday’s Kansas City Stair Climb, a 9/11 memorial event. Goldberg is accused of telling an informant to dip nails, screws and glass in rat poison and pack it into a pressure cooker bomb. Prosecutors said he used a direct messaging application to talk with the informant late this summer.
“Have you decided what kind of attack to carry out on 9/11?” he asked. “We could make pipe bombs and detonate them at a large public event.”
The informant told Goldberg that Kansas City was within close driving distance and the two men discussed the Stair Climb as a potential target, according to the report.
“It’s very troubling and very disturbing,” said retired FBI agent Michael Tabman. “The good is, law enforcement is really doing their job.”
He said he believes the FBI directed the informant to mislead Goldberg into thinking he would participate.
“The reason Kansas City was brought into it was because the informant himself mentioned he is here in Kansas City, which is why the subject said that, but he did that most likely under the direction of the FBI,” Tabman said.
He said timing is everything, which is why agents moved in and arrested Goldberg.
“If we didn’t get control of it, he might have gone to someone else that we didn’t know about, and might have gotten someone who had the wherewithal to pull it off,” Tabman said.
Tabman said he believes the Stair Climb should go on. Police are expected to have a large presence at the event.