A 19-year-old accused of planning a mass shooting at a Hindu place of worship near Chicago now faces a bipartisan demand that his case be treated as a federal hate crime.
The co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans — Democrat Ro Khanna of California and Republican Rich McCormick of Georgia — wrote on Friday to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, urging the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate the alleged plot against the Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) Temple in Aurora, Illinois, as “a potential federal hate crime” and to bring “all charges supported by the evidence.” It is the second bipartisan congressional intervention on India-related concerns this week, after six US lawmakers urged Marco Rubio to confront India over a protest crackdown.
The letter, reported by ANI, goes further than the charges filed so far. The congressmen asked investigators to determine whether anyone encouraged, assisted, or coordinated with the defendant — online or offline — and called for timely threat information to be shared with Hindu temples, Sikh gurdwaras, and other South Asian houses of worship, along with protective resources.
Alexandros Paporakis, 19, was arrested last Sunday after Palatine police received a tip from Mount Prospect police about concerning electronic messages he had allegedly sent to another person. According to investigators, Paporakis shared a document outlining an alleged mass shooting plan, along with images of a rifle, magazines, body armor, and other tactical equipment. Officers arrested him Sunday evening as he was leaving his home on the 1300 block of North Baldwin Court in Palatine, a northwest suburb of Chicago.
A search of his residence turned up a rifle, multiple loaded rifle magazines, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and tactical equipment — including a tactical vest fitted with body armor and a patch displaying imagery associated with white supremacist extremism. The FBI’s Chicago field office assisted with the investigation, which also surfaced a document attributed to Paporakis titled “Why I Fought: A.K.A.: (Aurora Shooter’s Manifesto).” Police said the document contained white supremacist and extremist statements, including references to violence against people of South Asian heritage, particularly those of Indian descent.
Detectives believe Paporakis may have been planning to carry out the attack on Sunday, October 11, potentially targeting a Hindu place of worship in the Aurora area. Investigators have not confirmed a specific intended location, and the Aurora Police Department alerted Hindu places of worship across its jurisdiction after the threat emerged. The investigation remains ongoing.
Paporakis has been charged with making a terrorist threat, a Class X felony in Illinois, and unlawful possession of a rifle with a barrel shorter than 16 inches, a Class 3 felony. He appeared Wednesday at the Cook County Third Municipal District Courthouse in Rolling Meadows, where a judge ordered him detained; his next appearance is scheduled for October 30. Palatine police say they are continuing to work with the FBI and are reviewing whether additional charges are warranted. Authorities say they have not identified any ongoing threat to the public.
“The seriousness of this alleged threat cannot be overstated,” Palatine Police Chief William Nord said in a statement. “Protecting our communities and places of worship remains a priority, and we will continue working with our law enforcement partners as this investigation moves forward.”
The congressional letter frames the Aurora case as part of what the lawmakers called “broader, troubling trends.” Citing FBI data, they noted an increase in reported hate crimes targeting Sikh, Hindu, and Buddhist communities in 2025. The Centre for the Study of Organised Hate found that anti-South Asian hate posts on X rose roughly 240 percent between January 2024 and June 2026, and a 2026 Carnegie Endowment survey found that one in four Indian American adults had been called a slur since the start of 2025. “The attempted attack in Aurora underscores the very real danger posed by this rising hostility,” the letter read.
Why this matters: the Aurora plot sits at the intersection of three American storylines — the persistence of mass-shooting plots against soft targets, the documented rise of hate aimed at South Asian Americans, and the question of when a state weapons case becomes a federal hate crime. A federal hate-crime charge carries a different weight than Illinois’ terrorist-threat statute: it declares the motive itself the crime. If the FBI acts on the caucus’s demand, the Aurora case would become one of the most prominent tests of that law under the current administration — and a signal to millions of diaspora families, in America and beyond, about how seriously their safety is taken.
