New Jersey man pledges allegiance to ISIS terrorist group and stabs his ‘unclean’ dog
Gregory Lepsky is facing federal charges of material support of a foreign terrorist organization after a criminal complaint was unveiled Friday detailing his behavior, including stabbing and threatening to kill his family dog.
The saga began February 21 when local police were called to Lepsky’s Pleasant Point, New Jersey home. A family member had called the police from work to say that Gregory was threatening to kill the family dog. According to the complaint, Lepsky came out of the house, bleeding, when called on his cellphone. As paramedics treated him, Lepsky began ranting that he had to kill the dog because it was “unclean.” He also said he was going to kill his mother.
The 20-year-old Lepsky’s provided reasoning was his recent conversion to Islam and a pledge of “allegiance to Allah.” Dogs are, in some circumstances, considered “haram” or forbidden in certain interpretations of the Islamic faith. He continued by saying that he had “joined ISIS,” a reference to the barbaric Islamic terror group that holds wide swaths of territory in the middle east, and had purchased a ticket to Turkey to help in their war effort.
The dog was later found by police in the house, stabbed with a 12 inch blade, but still living. Police then seized Lepsky’s phone that, according to the complaint, had a black ISIS flag as its background.
Lepsky continued his bizarre, unprompted rant after he was taken to the hospital for treatment, telling staff his name was “Allah Abdel Rochman,” and detailing plans to detonate a pressure cooker bomb, similar to the one set off at the 2013 Boston Marathon by brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Police found an unused pressure cooker in Lepsky’s closet along with ISIS propaganda. Later, Lepsky accurately described the additional material needed to create a deadly bomb with the pressure cooker and informed police he had watched internet videos on the topic. He told police he planned to bring the finished device into New York City and set it off in a crowded area.
Further evidence of Lepsky’s dangerous obession was found on social media, where, according to the complaint, he had posted photographs of himself posing with firearms and military fatigues in front of an ISIS flag. Breitbart News found Lepsky’s Facebook account still active Friday and captured ISIS imagery and anti-Israeli quotes.
With a Facebook friend, Greg Lepsky chatted about his conversion and ties to ISIS. He claimed, without providing evidence, that his parents had come from Chechneya, the same predominately-Islamic region of the Russian Federation from which the Tsarnaevs came, and changed their names and religion upon coming to the United States. Breitbart News could not independently verify this claim.
In response to a Facebook friend’s query, “[L]ol Greg was [sic] up where you at?” Lepsky is alleged to have responded, “I converted to Islam recently and decided im going to Syria to help my brothers fight the kuffar … if u are a Muslim u should come inshaAllah … Allah will guide you … please listen to me and fight the kuffar. Defend the honor of Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him.”
According to a press release from the Department of Justice accompanying the complaint, Lepsky faces up to 20 years in prison for his alleged offenses.
Source: Breitbart
