From the Chicago Tribune

An Uber driver from Glen Ellyn was ordered detained Monday on federal charges stemming from a series of Facebook rants allegedly threatening to shoot Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and others who had angered him.

Mohammad Waqas Khan, 29, was arrested May 14 after law enforcement officials had tailed him all night as he dropped off and picked up passengers in his 1995 Toyota Corolla, according to a federal criminal complaint. At the time, Khan had made threats on his public Facebook profile to kill numerous people before leaving for a scheduled trip to Pakistan in June, the complaint alleged.

“If I see a high value target Ima exploit it,” Khan wrote on his Facebook profile on May 7, according to the complaint. “I’m not killin sum bum on the street. I want a high net worth individual to shoot. I want this to be a real human tragedy. Much mourned.”

A week later, Khan singled out Emanuel, saying in a lengthy post the mayor and the “uppity aldermen have doomed Chicago to an early grave,” according to the charges.
“You shall be taught a lesson you will not forget! Rabid dogs!” the post allegedly warned.

Khan also ranted about the “noise pollution” around his house and threatened to end it with a “murderous night,” the complaint alleged. His Facebook profile also contained photos of firearms and one of Khan in a black mask holding a shotgun.

When DuPage County sheriff’s police pulled over Khan in his Toyota, they found a loaded Glock pistol in the car, according to the complaint. Shortly after his arrest on a firearms charge, Khan was accused of assaulting a police officer at the DuPage County Jail and was ordered held on $100,000 bail in that case, records show.

An arrest warrant on the federal charges was filed last week, records show. At a detention hearing Monday on those charges, Khan’s attorney, Ellen Domph, argued that Khan never intended to carry out the threats, likening them to provocative rap lyrics.

But prosecutors said Khan had become increasingly specific in his threats, discussing plans and taking “dry runs” to identify targets while out working for Uber. The violence was to unfold before his scheduled trip to Pakistan on June 8, according to the charges.

“The gun is cocked and ready to go,” Khan allegedly wrote on Facebook on the day of his arrest. “I’m not leaving America without my revenge even if it costs me my life. And that’s that.”

After his arrest, agents searched Khan’s home on Pleasant Avenue in Glen Ellyn and found hidden in his bedroom a semiautomatic handgun, a shotgun, ammunition and a 10-inch knife, according to the affidavit. A sword with a two-foot curved blade also was found in the basement, the complaint alleged.

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