Dept. of Justice Arrests Suspect Planning Islamic State-Inspired Pressure Cooker Attack on U.S. University

The Department of Justice confirmed this week that they had arrested a suspected Islamic State sympathizer who was planning to conduct an attack on a university campus.

The Department of Justice announced Monday that 23-year-old Alexander Ciccolo of Massachusetts was arrested on July 4 after the young man had begun building pressure cooker bombs in his home and was planning to use the bombs to attack a crowded university cafeteria.

The 23-year-old had reportedly been monitored by U.S. officials after making recent Islamic State-related social media comments. The FBI then noted that Ciccolo had reportedly purchased a pressure cooker at a Wal Mart in North Adams.

Ciccolo is reportedly the estranged son of an esteemed police captain in Boston, Massachusetts. Authorities said that upon searching the 23-year-old's apartment, they discovered multiple firearms and chemicals.

"This is a very bad person arrested before he could do very bad things," an anonymous senior federal official told ABC News in a recent interview.

An FBI informant reportedly received information from Ciccolo, who goes by the Islamic name Abu Ali al-Amriki, that he would be attacking a university in a different state and would be focusing his attack on dorms and the university cafeteria, including executing students on a live internet feed.

"Ciccolo said that if a student was a Muslim, then they would be permitted to help, sit tight, or leave," the FBI informant reportedly said in an affidavit filed against the 23-year-old.