A man from Pakistan who is accused of planning a mass shooting at a Jewish center in New York while residing in the Greater Toronto Area is set to go on trial in the spring. Muhammad Shahzeb Khan made an appearance at the U.S. District court in Manhattan, New York, where his trial by jury is scheduled to commence on May 26, 2026. If found guilty, he could potentially face a life sentence.
Khan, aged 21, was apprehended by heavily armed officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near a gas station in Ormstown, Quebec, last year. Authorities reported that he had enlisted the help of a human smuggler to assist him in crossing the U.S. border. Khan is facing two terrorism-related charges in connection with an alleged ISIS-inspired scheme to carry out a shooting at an unidentified Jewish center in Brooklyn, planned to coincide with the anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Having been extradited to the U.S., Khan pleaded not guilty earlier this year. Parliamentary records revealed that Khan had been granted a study permit in April 2023 and had arrived at Toronto Pearson International Airport in June of the same year. His immigration file did not raise any red flags during the security assessment conducted by the federal immigration department, thus bypassing further scrutiny by intelligence services like CSIS or the Canada Border Services Agency.
In June, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi stated, “We will prosecute this man to the fullest extent of the law.” Investigations into Khan’s social media activities, carried out under the pseudonym “Shahzeb Jadoon,” drew the attention of an FBI informant in October 2023, just four months after he relocated to the Toronto area. Khan allegedly expressed in an encrypted chat platform, “If we succeed with our plan, this would be the largest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.”
Evidence submitted in Quebec Superior Court as part of the extradition process revealed that Khan had solicited potential accomplices to procure hunting knives, camouflage attire, tactical vests, AR-style rifles, and quantities of ammunition and magazines. Concurrently, a self-proclaimed immigration advisor in Mississauga, Ontario, disclosed that Khan had been in the process of seeking refugee status in Canada based on claims of his sexual orientation.
During a court appearance in Quebec in February, Khan indicated his willingness to be extradited to New York for trial. In a message, Khan purportedly wrote, “Brothers … we are going to NYC to slaughter them.”
