(Stow) - A soldier whose hometown is listed as Stow is accused of threatening New York's 9/11 Memorial, and plotting to work with ISIS to kill American soldiers.
Cole James Bridges, who also used the name Cole Gonzalez, is scheduled to appear in Federal Court in Georgia on Thursday. He's charged with attempted material support for terror, and attempting to kill American soldiers.
The FBI says Bridges joined the Army in September 2019. He eventually was assigned as a cavalry scout to the 3rd Infantry, based at Fort Stewart, Georgia. According to the FBI, Bridges, who is 20 years old, allegedly began to research online propaganda about jihadists, and expressed his support on social media for ISIS and the Islamic State of Iraq.
Bridges eventually began communicating with an undercover FBI agent, who claimed to be in support with ISIS in Syria. Bridges wrote, “I used to have connections with people in Hamas and ISIS, and my family found out, and the government could have arrested me. So, I needed to prove to them I wasn’t what they thought I was, and I needed the government to get off my back. I don’t tell people I’m in the military, and I hate displaying the U.S. flag on my shoulder.”
Bridges even sent the undercover FBI agent video of himself in body armor with an ISIS flag, and he posted a picture of him on his Facebook page, under the name Cole Gonzalez, to reflect his views.
The Stow-Munroe Falls Schools have no record of Cole Bridges having attended school in that district. Attempts by cleveland.com to find his family were unsuccessful.
(Photo from Facebook, Courtesy FBI)
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