Milwaukee County

Milwaukee man indicted in plot to attack Masonic center

By John Diedrich of the Journal Sentinel

Feb. 9, 2016 1:44 p.m.

A Milwaukee man on Tuesday was indicted on three weapons counts related to an alleged plot to launch a machine gun attack on a Masonic center in Milwaukee.

Samy Hamzeh was indicted by a federal grand jury in Milwaukee late Tuesday morning. Hamzeh is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday afternoon.

He was indicted on two counts of possessing a machine gun and one count of possessing a silencer. Each count carries up to 10 years in prison.

A criminal complaint filed last month charging Hamzeh quotes him as saying he was plotting the attack as a way of "defending Islam" and hoped to kill at least 30 people.

"We will be marching at the front of the war," the 23-year-old said, according to the criminal complaint.

Hamzeh is not charged with an terrorism-related counts. There are no federal laws for a case like the one being mounted against Hamzeh — a so-called lone wolf suspect who planned an attack using guns, according to former prosecutors and other legal experts who reviewed the case at the request of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Federal defender Daniel Stiller earlier noted the complaint includes only Hamzeh's side of the conversation, which was translated from Arabic, and he looks forward to reviewing the conversations in their original form.

A U.S. citizen who has lived in Milwaukee for five years, Hamzeh has no criminal record. His family suggests he was set up by FBI agents working with people close to Hamzeh who were secretly recording him. Those informants have not been identified.

In online postings, his family said he was passionate about the plight of the Palestinians but was not a religious zealot and launching such an attack would be completely out of character. Friends echoed that, saying Hamzeh smoked marijuana and hung out in bars and coffee shops, but was no radical.

The criminal complaint says Hamzeh plotted to launch an attack on a Masonic center, which was identified as the Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center in downtown Milwaukee, with two others — the two who were secretly recording him for the FBI.

Hamzeh came to the attention of the FBI because he had been talking about traveling to the Middle East to wage attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, the complaint says.

In preparation for the attack, Hamzeh toured the center, practiced shooting at a range and spoke extensively about how the attack would unfold, according to the complaint.

He met with undercover FBI agents Jan. 25 in Kenosha, bought two fully automatic H&K MP-5 machine guns and a silencer from the agents. He was immediately arrested and has remained in custody.

About John Diedrich

John Diedrich writes about crime, federal issues, ultimate fighting and guns. His investigations have been honored with various national awards including a George Polk Award for reporting on rogue gun stores and an IRE award for exposing botched undercover federal stings.

@john_diedrich jdiedrich@journalsentinel.com 414-224-2408