Lawmakers ‘horrified’ by mass shooting plot on Chicago-area Hindu temple

Several lawmakers have expressed shock and outrage about an alleged racially motivated two-year plot to massacre people at a Hindu temple in Aurora, Ill., which led to the arrest of a 19-year-old Palatine, Ill., man.

Alexandros Paporakis was arrested Sunday at an apartment he shares with his mother in the 1300 block of North Baldwin Court in Palatine.

According to authorities, Paporakis had been planning for two years to commit a mass shooting at Aurora’s largest Hindu temple. On Sunday, he told one of his Taco Bell coworkers he was at a temple, but his gun had jammed and he was on his way to fix it. The coworker called 911, following which authorities located Paporakis and made the arrest.

He is facing several felony charges, including making terroristic threats.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) wrote on social media Thursday that he and his family were worshipping at the temple in Aurora on Sunday where the mass shooting was supposedly going to happen.

“I’m grateful to those who helped prevent a tragedy, but we must come together to confront the hatred that put so many innocent lives at risk,” Krishnamoorthi wrote in a post on the social platform X.

In a statement attached to his post, Krishnamoorthi added, “This is where the poison of anti-Indian hatred and white supremacy can lead, and we cannot wait until innocent people are killed to take it seriously” and that “every American deserves to live and worship without fear, and we must stand together against hatred in all its forms.”

Authorities said Paporakis had sent an eight-page manifesto to his coworker describing his hate by using racially charged slurs for a variety of non-white people. In the same manifesto he said he planned to kill as many people as possible before taking his own life and shared pictures of a rifle, rifle magazines, body armor and other tactical equipment.

Police found at his home a rifle, multiple loaded rifle magazines, hundreds of rounds of additional rifle ammunition, tactical equipment, a tactical vest containing body armor and a patch with imagery associated with white supremacist extremism.

In a social media post Thursday morning, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said Americans are “outraged” by this mass shooting plot in the Chicago-area temple.

“We must stand together—and strong—against white supremacist hate and violence targeted at temples, synagogues, churches and mosques,” he wrote on X. “When houses of worship are under attack, all Americans must stand up for freedom and equal rights.”

“Today, my heart is with the Aurora community,” the congressman added.

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) in a post on X said the “plot to massacre innocent Americans at a Hindu temple is unequivocally wrong.”

“The freedom to worship without fear is a fundamental American right,” he wrote. “Religious hatred, persecution, and violence have no place in our nation.”

A judge ordered Paporakis’s detention Wednesday after he appeared for a hearing. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 30 at 9 a.m.