18-year-old Houston man arrested on terrorism charges

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - A grand jury on Wednesday returned a five-count indictment against an 18-year-old Houston man arrested on Friday on terrorism charges. 

Kaan Sercan Damlarkaya is charged with one count of providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, two counts of attempting to provide material support to ISIS and two counts of unlawfully distributing explosives information.

“I don’t see it I never saw tendencies of it the kids are quiet and they don’t do a lot,” said Edward Hood, who lives next door to 18-year-old Kaan Sercan Damlarkaya’s family. Hood says he thinks the teen just got caught up in some type of online boasting.

But according to the federal criminal complaint, the teen began talking online to a reliable FBI source last August. Agents say Damlarkaya told that source how to build an AK-47 or an AK assault rifle from readily available parts in order to avoid detection by authorities. He allegedly went on to tell a group online that he could buy a giant machete for $15. The federal complaint claims he carried a knife in case he was stopped by the cops and slept with a machete under his pillow in case his house was raided.

Just last month, the complaint states, the teen told an FBI undercover employee he was going to Syria to join ISIS. FBI agents say the teen even talked of committing a terrorist attack here if he was unable to leave the country and spoke of being a martyr for terrorism. The complaint also alleges Damlarkaya provided information regarding ways to manufacture a bomb to ISIS supporters via a social media platform.

We knocked on the family’s door in west Houston Monday night but no one answered.