A Pakistani man who allegedly planned a mass shooting at a New York Jewish center while living in the greater Toronto area will face trial in the spring.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan appeared in US District Court in Manhattan, New York, on Tuesday. Public records show his jury trial is scheduled to begin May 26, 2026. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Khan, 21, was arrested by heavily armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers near a gas station in Ormstown, Que., last year after authorities said he paid a human smuggler to help him cross the border into the United States.
Khan faces two terrorism-related charges for an alleged ISIS-inspired plot to open fire on an unidentified Jewish center in Brooklyn, which was due to take place around the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.
He pleaded not guilty earlier this year, after being extradited to the United States.
Immigration records released by a Canadian parliamentary committee show Khan was granted a study permit in April 2023 and landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport the following June.
The federal immigration department’s security assessment had not identified “any risk indicators,” so Khan’s file was not sent for further analysis by the CSIS intelligence service or the Canada Border Services Agency.
“We will prosecute this man to the fullest extent of the law,” US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in June.
CBC News previously reported how Khan’s social media activity, under the alias “Shahzeb Jadoon,” first came to the attention of an FBI informant in October 2023, just four months after moving to the Toronto area.
“If we are successful with our plan,” Khan allegedly wrote on an encrypted chat platform, “this would be the largest attack on American soil since 9/11.”
According to evidence presented to the Quebec Superior Court as part of the extradition process, Khan had asked potential accomplices to acquire hunting knives, camouflage shirts, tactical vests, AR-style rifles and “900 rounds of ammunition and 10 magazines each.”
Around the same time, a purported immigration consultant in Mississauga, Ontario, said Khan had been in the process of applying for refugee status in Canada, based on his sexual orientation.
“He said he was gay,” Fazal Qadeer told CBC News in an interview last year.
Khan told the Quebec court in February that he had agreed to be extradited to stand trial in New York.
“Brothers… let’s go to New York to slaughter you,” Khan allegedly wrote.
