Taco Bell Coworker’s Tip Stopped a Self-Described Neo-Nazi’s Alleged Plot Against an Aurora Hindu Temple

A 19-year-old self-described neo-Nazi from Palatine, Illinois, drove to a large Hindu temple in Aurora, Illinois, with an AR-style rifle, body armor and hundreds of rounds of ammunition on Sunday, Oct. 11, police and prosecutors say. He was in custody the same day because a coworker at the Taco Bell where he worked read his messages, decided they were serious, and called the police.

Alexandros Paporakis is charged with making a terrorist threat, a Class X felony, and with unlawful possession of a weapon, a rifle with a barrel shorter than 16 inches. A judge at the Rolling Meadows courthouse ordered him held in custody. His next court date is Oct. 30. The FBI is reviewing the evidence and has not ruled out federal charges.

Thirteen minutes in the parking lot

Palatine Police Chief Bill Nord laid out the timeline at a news conference with the FBI on Thursday, Oct. 15. Surveillance video shows Paporakis’s red Acura pulling into the lot of what police called a “known large Hindu temple” in Aurora. “He entered the parking lot at approximately 12:25 p.m. and exited the parking lot at 12:38 p.m.,” Nord said. Police say the car was back in Palatine shortly before 2 p.m.

Temple officials confirmed Thursday that the target was the Balaji Temple in Aurora, ABC7 Chicago reported. The timing makes the plot even more chilling. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat whose family has worshiped there for about 40 years, according to FOX 32 Chicago, told CBS News Chicago that Oct. 11 was the start of Navaratri, one of the major Hindu festivals. “Huge crowds visited that temple that day,” he said. He told FOX 32 his own parents were there all day. Nobody inside knew what was sitting in the parking lot.

Why didn’t he open fire? According to prosecutors, Paporakis told his coworker that he had gone to carry out the attack but his gun jammed, so he drove home. Court records cited by NBC Chicago say he then searched the internet to learn how to unjam it. FOX 32 Chicago reported the coworker’s account that Paporakis claimed the rifle failed after he tried to shoot at a man from his vehicle, and that a video he sent appeared to show the rifle failing to fire. Police have said they have not independently confirmed the jam or where that video was recorded.

The coworker who didn’t look away

This is where the story turns. Paporakis worked at a Taco Bell in Arlington Heights. A coworker told investigators he regularly made racist comments, called himself a white supremacist, and talked about Nazis and armed conflict, according to FOX 32. On Sunday, after Paporakis described his plan to attack the temple, the coworker had what CBS News Chicago described as an extended Signal conversation with him in which he allegedly sent photos of an AR-style rifle and of himself in a tactical vest.

The coworker called Mount Prospect police, who immediately alerted Palatine police. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that call came in shortly after 3:30 p.m. Police then traced the Acura, matched it to the temple surveillance video, and took Paporakis into custody outside his home that Sunday, before he could try again.

FBI Chicago Acting Special Agent in Charge Lucas Rothaar credited “a single, courageous member of the public,” Fox News reported, and urged anyone who sees a threat to report it rather than decide for themselves whether it is credible. “The sooner we get that information, the sooner we can do that job,” Rothaar said. Palatine police put it simply: “We commend them for coming forward when they did.”

It is worth pausing on that. In an age when people film tragedies instead of preventing them, a fast-food worker took the threat seriously and picked up the phone. That one decision may be the only reason a festival crowd went home alive.

What police found

Detectives searched the home Paporakis shared with his mother, where police say he had lived for about a year. They recovered a rifle, multiple loaded magazines, hundreds of additional rounds, a tactical vest with body armor, and a patch bearing white supremacist imagery. NBC Chicago reported investigators described a modified AR-style rifle, 300 rounds of ammunition, gasoline cans and swastikas. Police said his mother was not cooperating with the investigation.

They also found an eight-page manifesto. Prosecutors say it was titled “Why I Fought: A.K.A. (Aurora Shooter’s Manifesto).” According to NBC Chicago, the writings “expressed words of hate, violence, superior race and mass shooting of Indian people,” and authorities say he “expressed pleasure calling himself a sociopathic white supremacist Neo-Nazi.” FOX 32 reported the document also targeted Jewish people and Black people, described a plan to kill as many people as possible, detailed his research into the temple’s location, and encouraged others to commit violence. ABC7 Chicago reported the manifesto describes an attack he had allegedly been planning for about two years. Nord said investigators are “still trying to determine why the October 11th date was significant to him.”

Police believe he acted alone. “He has been alone in this plan,” Nord said.

In court

At his detention hearing, the judge also entered a jailhouse healthcare order. NBC Chicago reported the judge noted Paporakis is being treated for ADHD, depression and anxiety and receives gender-transition hormone shots. CBS News Chicago reported that court documents describe mental and emotional health issues and say he had been without prescribed medication. His public defender told NBC Chicago that the statements from police and prosecutors are only allegations at this point and can change as the investigation continues. Paporakis is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The temple said “the safety of our devotees, employees and volunteers is our highest priority” and has added armed security from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Aurora Mayor John Laesch said police have increased patrols at houses of worship. “We’re thankful that he was apprehended, that he did not act,” Laesch said. Krishnamoorthi said he will push for hate crime charges.

The bigger lesson

Indian Americans, Jews, Black Americans: the manifesto’s target list reads like every hate-filled screed that has preceded an attack on a house of worship. Americans of every faith should be able to pray on a holy day without wondering who is idling in the parking lot. That they could this time is owed to one ordinary person who refused to shrug off a coworker’s talk of slaughter as edgy venting.

The system worked here because a citizen made it work. Mount Prospect and Palatine police moved fast, the FBI moved in, and a man accused of bringing a rifle and a manifesto to a temple was off the street within hours. Prosecutors now need to make sure he stays there.

The rifle may have jammed, but it was a Taco Bell coworker with a conscience and a phone who made sure there was never a second try.

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