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FBI agents arrested Jonathan Hunter Kramer, 21, outside a hotel in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 12, according to a federal criminal complaint announced by the Justice Department on Tuesday. Kramer, a resident of Valencia, is charged with receiving a firearm and ammunition he had reason to believe would be used to commit a federal crime of terrorism.
Agents had been watching Kramer that day. He left his home carrying a bag, took a rideshare to a retail store and bought a disposable phone. In the parking lot he met another person and collected a long black bag from a car trunk. He then paid cash for a hotel room in Cranberry Township. Staff at both the store and the hotel told investigators the bag made a metallic clicking sound when he set it down.
Kramer later traveled to a sporting goods store, where agents watched him at the gun counter. They approached him as he returned to the hotel parking lot carrying two bags. Searches of his person, his hotel room and his home turned up a semiautomatic rifle, five rifle magazines, a bipod and scope, 190 rounds of ammunition, an entrenchment tool, a prayer rug, pepper spray and roughly 30 knives. Agents also found a handwritten note that began, "DoNt look For me."
The FBI has known about Kramer since 2023. As a minor he was adjudicated delinquent by Pennsylvania authorities over a plot to carry out a mass casualty attack. After his release from juvenile detention, an anonymous tipster contacted the FBI on March 19 to report that he had resumed contact with old associates and was ordering unexplained packages. Investigators say he was posting online as "Hamza Al Rashid," claiming ties to ISIS, offering to share explosive manuals and writing that he was preparing for his mission and only needed a weapon.
John Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general for national security, said Kramer appeared to be readying a mass shooting when agents moved in. Kramer made his first court appearance on Sept. 14. Prosecutors have asked that he be held without bond, arguing he is a danger to the community. A criminal complaint is an accusation, and he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The arrest landed days after the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a window police departments across the country treat as elevated risk. Richard Evanchec, the special agent in charge of FBI Pittsburgh, said the region continues to face a raised threat from a range of terrorism actors. CBS Pittsburgh reported that prosecutors held a press conference on the case on Tuesday.
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