GREENBELT, Md. — An unassuming tech contractor 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.
Yet nearly three months after authorities said they foiled a truck attack modeled after the 2016 massacre in Nice, France, prosecutors have yet to signal an impending guilty plea.
Instead, in a recent court filing, prosecutors said “the government is considering seeking a superseding indictment,” meaning more serious charges could be filed against terror suspect Rondell Henry.
Henry, 28, currently faces only one federal charge of driving a stolen vehicle across state lines.
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.
After he unsuccessfully tried to enter the Dulles security perimeter for two hours, Henry then made his way to National Harbor. He then waited in a boat overnight for large enough crowds to amass.
By the morning of Thursday, March 28, Prince George’s County Police coordinated with federal and local law enforcement to locate the truck. They then arrested Henry as he jumped over a boat dock security fence.
Law enforcement agents found Henry’s phone thrown onto an area highway. The device contained images of gun-wielding ISIS fighters, the ISIS flag and the Pulse Nightclub shooter.
Henry may face more charges if a grand jury issues a superseding indictment. His current criminal charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.