PHOENIX — A teenager has been indicted on terrorism charges, accused of planning to bomb the Phoenix Pride Festival this past weekend, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office said Wednesday.
According to the announcement, 17-year-old Marvin Jalo had been involved in multiple online chat forums "discussing the supplies necessary to make an improvised explosive device and then had those supplies shipped to him" over the last year.
The teen reportedly expressed his plans to attack the recent Oct. 19-20 festival.
He was indicted Oct. 16 on one count of terrorism and one count of conspiracy to commit terrorism and will be tried as an adult.
In the indictment, Jalo was accused of furthering the goals of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a terrorist organization also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
"It certainly goes beyond that of being just a casual interest or dabbling or fad. I mean, this is somebody who spent some time immersed in this. And thankfully, somebody did what we've asked people to do, which is see something or know something, in this case, say something so that once the investigators were told of what was going on, they could look into it and quickly act to get him off the streets so that nobody was hurt," County Attorney Rachel Mitchell told 12News.
Court records detail how Jalo's own mother is the one who raised concerns of him being in chatrooms with people, 'she described as Terrorists'.
The documents go on to detail how Jalo's mother brought that up to investigators when Jalo was arrested in April of this year related to a fight over a mom finding those chats. Jalo told police at the time he was actively being recruited by extremists, according to the court records.
Investigators say discussions of his plot go back to the end of 2023 in various social media chat rooms where he's accused of indicating he made what investigators describe as 'a very unstable explosive'.
In December 2023, court documents say Jalo told others in the chatroom he was going to bomb the 'Pride parade first'.
Investigators say they found chats from January 2024 in their investigation of Jalo discussing a plot to attack a parade in New York with others.
Come March, Investigators say Jalo told others in their ongoing planning he could, "supply guns, explosives and cars."
Then in April, Jalo is alleged to have told those in a chat: "I'm legit planning a jihad."
Court records, and photos taken the day of Jalo's arrest show he was taken into custody the day before the Phoenix Pride Festival was set to begin.
“It takes a tremendous amount of cooperative work by law enforcement to develop a lead, locate a suspect, interrupt an attack, and make an arrest before a tragedy could happen. I am deeply grateful and immensely proud of our MCAO investigators and our law enforcement partners for their integral involvement in this case," County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in the announcement.
Jalo is being held on a $1 million cash-only bond.
Phoenix Pride holds news conference following indictment
Watch the full news conference below.
Jeremy Helfgot, a spokesperson for Phoenix Pride, addressed members of the media on Wednesday evening after the indictment of Jalo.
“In the wake of moments like this, it only leads us to redouble our resolve,” Helfgot said
Helfgot thanked the organizations involved in investigating the suspected bomb plot and the arrest of the teen who is accused of being behind the bomb plot.
“Our partners in public safety and our partners in law enforcement did what they needed to do to keep our community safe, and we have to acknowledge that,” Helfgot said.
Before the Phoenix Pride event took place, Helfgot said they were given assurance that there were no “active threats” law enforcement was tracking.
“The safety and wellbeing of our community is always our very top line concern, and it drives everything we do,” Helfgot said.
At this time, Helfgot said Phoenix Pride is not aware of any other threats posed by Jalo or anyone else, and said the Phoenix LGBTQ+ community is standing strong.
“The LGBTQ+ community is here, we’re not going anywhere,” Helfgot said. “We will not be intimidated."
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