GREENBELT, Md. — Nearly five months after authorities foiled an imminent truck attack at National Harbor, prosecutors upgraded charges against a Montgomery County man – accusing him of attempting to support ISIS.
Rondell Henry, 28, admitted to stealing a truck in April, with the sole intent of driving it into a crowd of people. Up until Wednesday, prosecutors filed a single charge against the former tech contractor, accusing him of stealing a vehicle and driving it across state lines.
Henry now faces a new count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically, ISIS.
A federal grand jury issued a superseding indictment with the new terror count, after prosecutors signaled in June they would upgrade the charges.
“Law enforcement is working tirelessly to prevent and disrupt terrorist attacks, whether they come from within or outside the United States,” said Robert K. Hur, the U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland.
“This indictment is the next step in holding Rondell Henry accountable for his actions.”
After his arrest, Henry told FBI special agents he was going to drive a U-Haul truck into a crowd at National Harbor, and wasn’t going to stop. He specifically modeled his truck plot after the 2016 massacre in Nice, France.
The FBI alleged the Montgomery County resident stole a U-Haul from Alexandria, originally intending to run over pedestrians at Dulles International Airport.
Authorities said Henry eventually changed his target to National Harbor, where Prince George’s Police arrested him.
Prosecutors added Henry described in his own words how he wanted to create “panic and chaos,” the “same as what happened in France.”
The truck attack on the French Riviera killed 86 people on Bastille Day, with hundreds of others wounded along Nice’s famed Promenade des Anglais.
Henry said he harbored a “hatred” for “disbelievers” over the past two years, referring to people who are non-Muslims.
The Germantown resident made the incriminating statements after he was read his Miranda rights, informing Henry of law enforcement’s ability to use anything he said against him.
“The quotations and statements of the defendant’s planning and purpose herein come from those incriminating statements,” prosecutors said.
The chain of events enacting the plot allegedly began Tuesday, March 26, when Henry walked off his job in search of a large vehicle to steal.
Henry then drove his BMW from Montgomery County to Alexandria, where he followed a U-Haul truck and stole it after it was parked.
The following day, court documents based on Henry’s statements said he waited at Dulles for large enough crowds to target, but he only found a small number of people around 5 a.m.
Court documents detail how the Maryland man is expected to go to trial either late this year or by early 2020.