A Sarasota man indicted on weapons and pornography charges possessed evidence of plotting a racially motivated act of violence, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Lucas Alexander Temple, 20, faces charges of possessing an unregistered firearm, a firearm with a removed serial number and receiving child sexual material, according to Greg Kehoe, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida.
While executing a search warrant at Temple’s home in November, investigators with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Force found pipe bombs, a pressure cooker, literature on how to make explosives and a written plan stating intentions, Kehoe said in a news release.
Investigators said Temple also possessed a variety of Nazi and mass shooting propaganda materials, including the journals of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
The home also had a flag bearing the symbol of the Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, U.S.-based “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist group,” Kehoe said in the release.
“The group’s targets have included racial minorities, the Jewish community, the LGBTQ community, the United States government, journalists and critical infrastructure,” Kehoe said. “AWD’s ideology largely focused on accelerationism, meaning the goal was to push society into armed conflict in an effort to create a radical social transformation.”
As part of its investigation, agents learned Temple had been “communicating with other ideologically aligned individuals online about conducting violence against minorities and providing instructions on how to manufacture explosives,” Kehoe said.
Among multiple firearms recovered, federal agents recovered a shotgun with a sawed-off barrel that was not registered to Temple, the indictment and a criminal complaint alleged.
Federal law prohibits the possession of shotguns with barrels shorter than 18 inches in length without registration in National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
Agents also discovered that on at least two occasions Temple received images of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, the news release said.
Temple faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison if convicted.
The Sarasota County’s Sheriff’s Office and Sarasota Police Department assisted with the investigation.
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