Michael Teekaye first appeared on the FBI’s radar as a teenager in December 2019, when agents said he expressed interest in extremist Islamic ideology on social media.

Teekaye said in his first interview with the FBI that he no longer wanted to join the Islamic State, that his desire had diminished after feeling used by the people he spoke with online. But in the years since, his behavior demonstrated that he was taking “concrete steps” to leave the country and provide “material support to a terrorist organization,” according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday by the FBI. He was preparing to leave the country from Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport earlier this week when he was arrested.

Teekaye, a 21-year-old man from Hanover, is being held without bail on charges of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The federal public defender’s office was assigned to represent him, but no attorney appeared in the case as of Wednesday afternoon.

Teekaye is on probation until September 2025 on the misdemeanor charge. Two years ago, Teekaye showed up at a Columbia elementary school holding a large fixed-blade knife and wearing a black mask, Howard County police reported. Teekaye was there to fight a classmate, he later told police, with whom he was having some sort of conflict. It is not known who this classmate was. He also had a penknife with him.

After federal agents arrested him, they searched his bedroom in his parents’ house, where they found al-Qaeda banners and a large machete, FBI Special Agent Jonathan D. Evans wrote in a 28-page affidavit.

The affidavit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, explains how the FBI said Teekaye, who at age 16, was forcibly hospitalized after the Howard County Police Department reported in 2019 that he said he wanted to “cut off his head”. “off” of a classmate, took the path that led to his arrest at the airport on Tuesday.

The FBI affidavit is based on discussions between Teekaye and undercover FBI employees on Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp and conversations with undercover agents. The affidavit presents a series of discussions about Teekaye joining various branches of the Islamic State in Africa and, at one point, plotting to attack Jews or supporters of Israel living in Maryland.

“If I don’t become a mujahid there, I’ll become a mujahid here lol,” Teekaye was quoted as saying by the FBI during a WhatsApp conversation with an undercover agent.

Teekaye’s social media account was deactivated in 2019 for posts in which he expressed support for extremist views. He told an undercover FBI employee that he “supported the state and the cause” and wanted to “lead an attack” when he was older. But, Teekaye said, he was already taking steps: He was talking to a “sister” in a refugee camp overseas, he told the informant. The camp was known to have women associated with ISIS. He asked the informant if they wanted to join him.

“I would, but how would we get there?” » asked the informant. “Do you have a contact who can help us?”

“No, but it’s easier since it’s a poor country,” Teekaye replied. “We can just go to a village they control.”

A few days later, the FBI contacted Teekaye and his parents. They asked him to search his phone and laptop.

Teekaye was forcibly hospitalized a second time. An intake evaluation from the Washington Psychiatric Institute found that Teekaye was “obsessed with Muslim culture, posting terrorist material on social media, threatening to kill all Americans, threatening to kill (his) parents.” His outpatient psychiatrist was concerned about his homicidal thoughts and increasing aggression.

Teekaye admitted he was a “danger” to himself and others, and that he said he wanted to kill his parents because he was angry with them.

“They kept making me angry,” he told his outpatient psychiatrist. “They were yelling at me and stuff… I guess because of what happened with the FBI and all that… They found stuff on my phone… like stuff about radical Islam .”

In an interview with federal agents a few days later, Teekaye said he felt people were using him. His desire to become a “fighter” had diminished.

But three years later, in March 2023, he started talking to an undercover agent on Instagram and WhatsApp. He told her he wanted to go to Africa.

“Would you like to follow the same path as me? he asked.

” What is this ?? Lol, I don’t know (I don’t know) your way,” the officer replied.

Teekaye told the agent that he wanted to “do the highest works of Allah” and establish “Sharia” and “khilafah” or caliphate. He wanted to settle in a country close to a state controlled by ISIS. Then, when the time came, he would move.

Once the informant read the message, he was going to delete it, he told her. He wanted to destroy the evidence. He told her his accounts were closed “all the time” and that the “federal government” was watching him.

If he didn’t make it overseas, he said, he would try to carry out an attack in the state, he told her. But that was plan B. Plan A was to travel abroad. He asked her if she was ready to go with him. She said she wasn’t looking for marriage.

Teekaye said he had a place in Colombia in mind, where he knew there were “the most Israelis.” He wanted to target “any place or high-ranking person who supports Israel as a country.” She asked him if he was talking about the Jewish people or those who supported the Israeli government.

“Both,” he said.

Earlier this summer, Teekaye, who worked at several restaurants in Anne Arundel County, attempted to purchase a gun but was turned away because he was still on probation. He had gone to Cindy’s Hot Shots, a shooting range in Severn, and was able to purchase ammunition.

He also met a woman on Instagram who claimed to be in a refugee camp in Syria. She spoke of knowing people who could take him to Ethiopia and that from there he could go to a neighboring country, probably Somalia, to join the fighters.

For months, Teekaye changed his mind several times, both about his belief in the people who bind him and whether he should move forward with his plans. He feared he wouldn’t blend in or get arrested by the FBI for planning the trip. He decided to delete the Telegram account to get rid of the evidence.

Furthermore, he said, he thought the Syrian woman’s account was “incoherent,” which made him think she was “incompetent.”

A few days later, he told the undercover agent that he was in contact with a Somali ISIS fighter. The fighter told him to go to Türkiye first, then to Ethiopia. It would be easier to cross the border with Somalia.

He sent the officer a photo of an Ethiopian e-visa the fighter had issued to him, which would expire in a few weeks.

However, Teekaye said he was not sure whether ISIS was “the right group.” Perhaps, he says, he should wait until “the right door opens” and focus on improving himself in the meantime.

In September, however, he contacted the undercover agent again to tell him he had made his decision. The Somali fighter was preparing another visa for Ethiopia and a plane ticket. He was due to leave on September 30. But before leaving, he wanted to meet the undercover agent. She offered to drive him to the airport when the time came.

The hunter booked him on a British Airways flight departing on October 14 and returning a week later to avoid suspicion. His final destination was Turkey.

“Do you still want to get married once we’re both there?” » he asked the undercover agent.

“In shaa allah,” she said, meaning “God willed it.” “Let’s focus on your arrival first, and then we will continue this topic.”

She asked him a few days before the flight if he was sure, reminding him that there would be no return. But Teekaye told him he had done his research. It seemed that ISIS was the only group that had “the truest and most sincere intentions.” He had no doubt.

On the day of his flight, he went to the airport in a rideshare vehicle. The undercover agent told her she could no longer drive him due to a family emergency.

Teekaye arrived early for his late night flight. He passed the security check. At 5:59 p.m., he was arrested.

“I’m going to come out in 20 years and do something here.” All right? All right? You will never stop me. Jihad will never stop,” Teekaye told the police. He was going to be 40 years old when he came out.

Teekaye started kicking one of the officers: “I will come and kill your soldiers. I’m going to kill you.