Teen says ISLAM is why he stabbed boy to death and tried to kill two others…

A teenager in Florida, who was sleeping over at a friends house, said that his Muslim faith is what propelled him to stab a boy to death as well as stab the mother and brother in an attempt to kill them:

SUN SENTINEL – A teenager invoked his Muslim faith as the reason he killed a 13-year-old boy and also stabbed a woman and her son, Palm Beach Gardens police said Tuesday.

Police say Corey Johnson, 17, of Jupiter, was sleeping over at the home of Elaine Simon when the knife attack happened early Monday.

Police say Johnson killed another boy who was sleeping over — 13-year-old Jovanni Brand — by stabbing him repeatedly and cutting his throat. It was Jovanni’s birthday.

Police said Johnson also stabbed Simon about 12 times and stabbed Simon’s 13-year-old son, Dane Bancroft, about 32 times.

Johnson said he felt Dane made fun of his Muslim faith and practices and that Jovanni was idolizing famous people and referred to them as gods, which went against his beliefs, police said.

Investigators said Johnson admitted to reading the Quran on his phone just prior to the stabbing attack to give him courage to “carry out his intentions.”

Here’s what happened:

The stabbing investigation began early Monday when police responded to a report of the stabbing at 334 Sunset Bay Lane. Officers arrived and found Simon and the two boys with stab wounds.

Johnson admitted “his actions to our investigators, stating that he stabbed the victims because of his religious beliefs,” said Clint Shannon, the Palm Beach Gardens police chief.

Investigators said Simon woke up to a commotion and went upstairs about 5:45 a.m. Monday. That’s when Johnson confronted her at the top of the stairs, and Johnson stabbed her, police said.

Dane ran to protect his mom, and Johnson stabbed him, police said. Dane and his mother ran to a neighbor’s house, where 911 was called.

“She rang my bell,” someone who called 911 said. “She’s bleeding. Corey Johnson is out there with a knife.”

Simon and her son, Dane, remain hospitalized.

Simon’s older son, Kyle Bancroft, 15, told investigators he and Johnson often watched videos about Muslim jihadis on the Internet, most recently the Sunday before the attack, police said. Kyle was found unharmed.

Apparently the FBI was in the process of making a case to arrest Corey Johnson when this happened:

Johnson had drawn the FBI’s attention last year after he allegedly made threats on Instagram to a high school in England, according to a report from Jupiter police. “Those threats were so severe in nature that up to 100 students were removed from the school fearing some kind of attack,” a Jupiter police report said.

Johnson’s relatives told investigators last year that Johnson “had been fascinated with dictators and their role in history,” including Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, police said.

Jupiter police spoke with the FBI as recently as this month, when the FBI said it was working with prosecutors to make an arrest on federal charges “in the next several weeks,” the police report said.

He didn’t just stab the one boy he killed, he slit his throat. And he did it after reading the Quran to gain the courage to do it. Wow.

UPDATE: Here’s more from WPBF

According to the Jupiter police report obtained by WPBF 25 News, multiple police forces had been watchingJohnson since at least January of 2017.

The report quotes a Palm BeachCounty Sheriff’s Investigator telling Jupiter police that month that Johnson, “…hasviewed several videos of ISIS online including beheading videos, has stated hewants to join the organization and has also reached out to ISIS via theinternet.”

In the next paragraph of the report, an investigator with the Palm Beach County School District Police is quoted as saying Johnson, a student at Dwyer High School, “…likes extremists,Fascists, Hitler and is a White Supremacist.”

The police report said the local police forces met with the FBI in January of 2017 to discuss Johnson.

The FBI is cited in the report as telling Jupiter police that authorities in England had reached out to the FBI, believing Johnson was responsible for an online threat of a Catholic school in England in October of 2016.

Published reports said the targeted school was the McAuley Catholic High School and the threat said, in part, “By Allah, we will kill every single Infidel student at this school.”

The Jupiter police report said federal authorities chose not to arrest Johnson, though, saying, “…he is a juvenile and believed a redirection approach would be the most beneficial regarding his conduct.”

The report details a meeting the FBI had with Johnson where they told him to stop making threats online and stop associating with terrorist organizations.

They say he’s a White Supremacist who loves dictators, but at the same time he’s a jihadi Muslim who wanted to join ISIS. And after he threatened to killed a bunch of Christians in England, they chose not to arrest him anyway. Nice job Jupiter police.


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