A Florida man took inspiration from both the Islamic State and the comic book character the Joker when planning to kill coworkers, police say.
Enrique Dominguez, 20, was arrested Friday in Miami on charges of aggravated assault. According to a police report obtained by the Daily Dot, the day before his arrest, his coworkers told authorities that Dominguez had threatened multiple times to kill his supervisors and others at his workplace, including a blunt pledge that he would “dress up as the Joker from the Batman movie and bring the gun to work during my break.”
A coworker said Thursday that Dominguez made the date clear: “I will pledge my allegiance to Allah on Tuesday, the day that I plan to pick up the rifle that I bought and bring it to work to kill my boss.”
“I will dress up as the Joker from the Batman movie and bring the gun to work during my break.”
It’s clear his Joker fandom was significant. Police noted he has a Joker tattoo on his right shoulder and a different jester on his left. They also said that he posted images of himself dressed as the character, and holding knives, on social media. One he agreed to let them search his home, police said, they found a host of knives, a gun, and a clown mask.
Less clear is how affiliated Dominguez is with ISIS. Coworkers did tell police that he had showed them videos of the terrorist group executing people.
It’s rare for anyone actively directed by ISIS, which controls some parts of Syria and Iraq, to stage an attack in the U.S. But some—most visibly the three gunmen who died after a murderous spree killing 14 in San Bernardino, California—have taken up arms on their own after saying they were inspired by the group and its interpretation of Islam. Law enforcement missed shooter Tashfeen Malik’s post on Facebook, though the Federal Bureau of Investigation regularly arrests Americans who make pledges to ISIS and share their propaganda on social media.
Dominguez’s bond is set at $5,000 and he must remain under house arrest, the Miami Herald reported.
H/T Miami Herald. Photos via Miami-Dade Police Department and istolethetv/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0) | Remix by Jason Reed
