SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- An Adams man was in court Tuesday after his arrest prompted by a Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation into alleged intentions to attack police and civilians in another state.
On Tuesday, 23-year-old Alexander Ciccolo faced a federal court judge. Prosecutors say he had a plan to carry out an ISIS-inspired attack at a college campus using guns and a pressure cooker bomb.
Mobile app users, click here to view photos of the scene.
During the hearing, the government played 9 minutes of a video tape of Ciccolo's interview with the FBI after he was arrested on the 4th of July. The government said FBI agents asked Ciccolo about his alleged plot but all he wanted to talk about was ISIS and how they have a bad rap. Ciccolo showed little emotion as he sat in the courtroom with both his arms and legs shackled.
>> READ: Affidavit filed against Alexander Ciccolo
The government also reiterated Ciccolo had been planning to attack a college cafeteria during lunchtime, and broadcast it live on the internet, and emphasized he had purchased a pressure cooker and had obtained guns and firearms from a cooperating witness with the FBI. But Ciccolo's attorney points out Ciccolo himself never bought any weapons.
"The government provided the weapons and they did so at no cost," his attorney said.
The government also compared Ciccolo's alleged plans to the church tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina.
Our cameras caught Ciccolo's step-father and mother walking into court, but his estranged father, Boston Police Captain Robert Ciccolo, was not there. He's the one who tipped the feds off to his son.
When asked how the son of a Boston Police captain allegedly becomes radicalized, Ciccolo's attorney said, "I don't think I have any more insight into that than you would. We all have children and sometimes our children fall far from the tree."
He was ordered held in a Rhode Island jail, pending his trial.
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