FBI agents posing as co-conspirators foiled a man's alleged plot to blow up a Nashville energy facility using a weapon of mass destruction, court records show. Authorities say Skyler Philippi, 24, of Columbia, Tenn., had penned a manifesto and was motivated by "racial hatred," the Tennessean reports. He has allegedly been associated with white supremacist groups, and planned to destroy an electric substation by flying a drone fitted with explosives into it, WKRN reports. Authorities say he previously told an informant he wanted to carry out a mass shooting at a Columbia YMCA, WSMV reports.
"As charged, Skyler Philippi believed he was moments away from launching an attack on a Nashville energy facility to further his violent white supremacist ideology—but the FBI had already compromised his plot," US Attorney General Merrick Garland says in a Department of Justice press release. FBI informants communicated with Philippi for months before he was arrested Saturday, the Justice Dept. says. Authorities say he believed his attack would "shock the system," leading to the failure of other substations. He is charged with charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy an energy facility, and faces up to a life sentence. (More Nashville stories.)
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