3 suspects in bomb plot against Somalis to face Kansas court
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This Friday, Oct. 14, 2016 booking photo provided by the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office in Wichita, Kan., shows Patrick Eugene Stein. Stein is one of three members of a Kansas militia group who were charged Friday Oct. 14, 2016, with plotting to bomb an apartment building filled with Somali immigrants in Garden City, Kan. Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said Curtis Allen, Stein and Gavin Wright are members of a group calling itself the Kansas Security Force. Beall says the arrests were the culmination of an eight-month investigation. (Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office via AP) (The Associated Press)
Three men accused of plotting to target Somali immigrants in a diverse western Kansas community are to make their first federal court appearances.
Curtis Wayne Allen, Patrick Eugene Stein and Gavin Wayne Wright are charged in a complaint unsealed Friday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. Online court records show they're to appear Monday morning in a Wichita courtroom.
The complaint says the men are members of a small militia group calling itself "the Crusaders," and that its members espouse sovereign citizen, anti-government, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremist beliefs.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Prosecutors allege the men planned to detonate truck bombs around a small Garden City apartment complex where about 120 Somali residents live. Authorities say the men talked of attacking area churches that helped settle refugees and get them jobs.