US Teen Arrested Over Alleged Plot to Attack Hindu Temple in Illinois

Illinois police say they prevented a potential mass shooting and arrested Alexandros Paporakis, 19, a cashier at a Taco Bell in Palatine, a Chicago suburb. He was taken into custody on the very day authorities believe he intended to attack a Hindu house of worship.

Prosecutors say Paporakis told a co-worker he "couldn't wait" to kill Indian people. The case comes as Indian Americans grow increasingly fearful of hostility directed at them, attributed in part to fierce political battles over immigration and skilled-worker visas.

How the case unfolded

Investigators believe Paporakis planned to attack the largest Hindu temple in Aurora, about 65 km southwest of Palatine. Police said, however, that "the specific intended location has not been confirmed and remains under investigation."

According to the charges, Paporakis told a co-worker that Sunday would be "a special day." One co-worker told investigators that Paporakis called him on Sunday afternoon saying his gun had jammed. He was said to have told the colleague he left "super fast" without being noticed.

Paporakis also allegedly sent a video showing the rifle failing to fire and said he wanted to try again once it was fixed. Two co-workers called police. Officers in Palatine and nearby Mount Prospect then arrested him as he left his home.

"The severity of this alleged threat cannot be taken lightly," Palatine Police Chief William Nord said.

Paporakis faces serious charges including "terrorist threats" and "unlawful possession of a weapon." On Wednesday a judge ordered him held in pretrial detention. His next court appearance is set for October 30.

About the suspect

Prosecutors say Paporakis openly identified himself as a white supremacist to co-workers at his workplace. He allegedly sent a co-worker an eight-page document titled "Why I fought: A.K.A. (Aurora Shooter's Manifesto)," according to court records reviewed by the Associated Press.

The document describes Indian, Jewish and Black people as "subhuman" and lays out a plan to kill as many of them as possible. In it, he allegedly calls himself "a white supremacist, neo-Nazi with a personality disorder, consumed by hatred, who dreams every day of mass murder."

Prosecutors say he wrote that he had planned the attack for two years and researched targets using YouTube and Google Street View. They also said he has mental health issues and lives with his mother.

When they searched his home, police seized an AR-style rifle with no serial number, loaded magazines, a gas canister bearing slurs aimed at South Asians, and items carrying Nazi symbols.

Is hostility toward Indian Americans rising?

The FBI does not track crimes targeting Indian Americans separately. The closest available figures are for crimes against Hindus and Sikhs, most of whom trace their roots to India.

Crimes against Sikhs appear to be rising. Police reported 234 anti-Sikh offenses to the FBI in the 12 months to October, up from 183 in the previous 12 months, a roughly 28% increase. Anti-Hindu offenses remain lower and broadly stable, at 63 over the past two years, or about two to three a month.

Hindu temples, however, have been targeted. Over two nights in late June 2025, an estimated 20 to 30 rounds were fired at a Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, while people were inside, according to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. No one was hurt.

Two months later, Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi condemned a break-in and vandalism at a Hindu temple in Santa Clara, California, saying incidents targeting Hindu temples across the United States "are on the rise."

Online, the picture is starker. A report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) found that the monthly volume of hostile posts about South Asians on X more than tripled between January 2024 and June 2026.

Indian Americans say they feel it too. A Carnegie Endowment for International Peace survey of 1,000 Indian Americans, conducted by YouGov between November 2025 and January 2026, found that one in four had been cursed at with offensive language since the start of 2025. Nine percent said they had been physically threatened and 4% said they had been physically attacked. Nearly one in five said they avoid wearing Indian clothing in public.

The survey also found, however, no significant change in the number of people reporting personal discrimination since 2020.

Devesh Kapur, a professor of South Asian studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and a co-author of the Carnegie survey, said the threat is growing. "White supremacist extremism is clearly on the rise," he told Al Jazeera. "Hostility toward Indians has risen particularly among the MAGA right during President Trump's second term."

What is driving it

Researchers say much of the hostility stems from immigration debates. Trump campaigned on immigration ahead of the 2024 presidential election and has issued sweeping immigration restrictions—including "military-style" federal raids targeting immigrant communities, which left some activists dead—since returning to the White House in January 2025.

Indians receive more than 70% of H-1B visas, the category US employers use to bring in skilled foreign workers. Spikes in online hostility often follow political fights over the program.

In July 2025, President Donald Trump criticized US tech companies for offshoring jobs to India. Days later, amid a trade dispute, he wrote on Truth Social that India and Russia could "drag their dead economies down together." That September he imposed a $100,000 fee on some new H-1B visa applications. US courts are still weighing the fee's legality and have so far blocked the payment requirement.

The Carnegie survey found two-thirds of Indian Americans oppose the fee.

Figures close to Trump have also voiced anti-Indian sentiment. In September 2024, far-right activist Laura Loomer, once a close Trump ally, wrote that the White House would "smell like curry" if former Vice President Kamala Harris won. The White House, then under President Joe Biden, called the remark "disgusting."

Kapur said Vice President JD Vance, whose wife is the daughter of Indian immigrants, has himself used "dog whistle" language, calling H-1B visa holders, most of them Indian, "indentured servants." "So it is no surprise that such rhetoric can turn into violence," Kapur said.

Government accounts have joined the trend too. Last month, a now-deleted post by the US Department of Homeland Security showed a Sikh man referred to as "Mr Singh" and told him to "get out of our way." The post appeared as the Trump administration ramped up a campaign highlighting the presence of undocumented immigrants in commercial trucking, particularly Sikhs and Indians.

Researchers also point to the growing prominence of South Asians in US politics, from Harris to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, alongside the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory, which holds that the white population is being deliberately replaced.