PLANTATION, Fla. – The FBI says it foiled an apparent plot to hurt people at a South Florida office of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Forrest Kendall Pemberton was arrested Christmas Day after allegedly driving down to Plantation from Alachua County, searching for that AIPAC office and other locations, with several firearms in tow.
One of the locations Pemberton was allegedly scouting was a former AIPAC office located off Pine Island Road in Plantation.
But that location is an old address for the organization’s local offices.
Court documents also show he was looking at a local IRS office nearby.
According to the documents filed Monday, Pemberton allegedly left a note with his family, saying goodbye and then drove to South Florida to scout things out before coming back with weapons, including an AR-15 rifle.
Law enforcement found him on Dec. 25 in a rideshare vehicle, which also coincided with the first night of Hanukah.
Investigators asked him if he was planning a “mass casualty” event and then taking his own life, the documents stated.
“Um, I really don’t know if I was gonna end it with my life or not. I hadn’t gotten that far yet,” he responded, according to the documents. “It entirely depended if I ended up getting caught or not. If caught, that was a way out.”
According to the documents, Pemberton chose AIPAC because of its “political influence” and its relative location.
He said his motivation for taking this action was frustration with the “status quo” and “see(ing) if I could make a change,” the documents stated.
Oren Segal, the vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said, “Had (the attack) occurred it would have reverberated across the Jewish community both here and abroad and among other communities.”
“The Jewish community has felt very vulnerable over the last year since Oct. 7 and this plot, even though it didn’t happen, does raise concern,” he said.
The FBI confirmed that Pemberton was arrested on federal stalking charges. He has a court hearing scheduled for Monday in Alachua County.
READ THE FULL CRIMINAL COMPLAINT BELOW: