CLEVELAND — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a Cleveland man accused of plotting to ambush and kidnap police officers was convicted on Friday.
The DOJ arrested Christian Ferguson on May 8, 2020, and accused him of plotting a false distress call in order to “start an uprising.” On Friday a federal jury found Ferguson guilty on two counts of attempted kidnapping.
He will be sentenced Aug. 27.
The DOJ said that in April 2020, the FBI received a tip that a person, later identified to be Ferguson, was posting “violent and extremist” items in a chatroom. The DOJ said that Ferguson had told the chatroom that he would make a fake distress call to lure law enforcement to a remote location where they would be robbed and possibly killed.
The DOJ said that the FBI introduced undercover agents to further discuss Ferguson’s plan and see it fruition.
The DOJ said that Ferguson facilitated a fake distress calls at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park on May 8, 2020, in an attempt to find out the officers’ response time. He was then arrested.
“Mr. Ferguson devised a plan, and took steps to see it through, that involved placing a fake distress call to lure responding officers to the scene so that he could violently attack them, steal their department-issued weapons and equipment, and incite various militias to similarly attempt to overthrow the U.S. government and its institutions,” acting U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Brennan said in a statement. “Exploiting first responders’ most solemn obligation – to protect and serve – as a way of luring them into a violent ambush and inciting violence against our democratic institutions was cowardly, heinous, and, as Mr. Ferguson’s jury determined today, criminal.
“The community members who reported this plan, and the federal agents who worked to prevent it, should be commended for their actions. Lives were saved.”
