March 18--A man who wounded four people at UC Merced last year before he was fatally shot by police appears to have been inspired by the militant group Islamic State but acted alone, the FBI said Thursday.
The FBI released a statement saying a review of the attacker's electronic devices found that he drew inspiration from terrorist propaganda and may have been "self-radicalized."
"His laptop contained pro-ISIL propaganda, and he had visited ISIL and other extremist websites in the weeks prior to his attack," the agency said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
"The FBI uncovered information that indicated Faisal Mohammad began his preparations for the attack at least one week prior to the assault. During this investigation no information has been developed that Mohammad was working with, or directed by, anyone in conducting this attack."
The news of the Islamic State link comes nearly four months after the San Bernardino attack that killed 14 people. The FBI said the two shooters in that incident were also self-radicalized and inspired by Middle Eastern terrorist groups. An Islamic State propaganda magazine later praised the couple as martyrs.
An attorney representing Mohammad's family, Daniel Mayfield, told The Times that the FBI's discovery of Islamic State propaganda "was new information." He said that the family and friends of Mohammad had their computers and property seized during searches after the stabbing rampage, but that property was later returned after nothing notable was found.
In an interview, the lawyer said that the nature of the pro-Islamic State propaganda on Mohammad's computer was unclear from the FBI's brief statement.
"It could be anything from a 17-year-old trolling the Internet to a class assignment to something nefarious," Mayfield told The Times. "What can you say .... until we get the computers back?"
Mohammad, 18, stabbed four people at UC Merced before being shot and killed by police in November.
Investigators found a "two-page, handwritten manifesto" in the assailant's pocket during an autopsy, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said at a news conference. The document detailed an elaborate "script" for the attack, Warnke said.
Mohammad, a freshman, had planned to go into the classroom on the second floor of the Classroom and Office Building and tie his classmates' hands with zip-tie handcuffs and force another student to help him do so, Warnke said. Mohammad listed some students by name.
He then planned to put petroleum jelly into clear bags, cut holes in the bags and squirt the substance onto the floor, making "kind of a slip-and-slide" that would make it difficult for anyone who entered the room, Warnke said.
In the note, Mohammad said he anticipated a confrontation with police officers and planned to steal an officer's gun before leaving the classroom to "do other tragedies on campus," the sheriff said.
Mayfield, the attorney for Mohammad's family, also issued a statement on behalf of the family, who expressed sympathy for the victims of the attack. The family said Mohammad's actions were a sharp departure from the boy they knew when he lived at home in Santa Clara.
"Faisal was always quiet, respectful, and studious," the family said, adding that he turned 18 just 10 days before the campus rampage. "For now, we ask everyone to understand that we are still grieving and request some privacy."
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