(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department announced last Friday that Michael Sam Teekaye, Jr., 22, has pled guilty to attempting to join ISIS. In the announcement, the FBI portrayed Teekaye as a terrorist mastermind.
“Michael Teekaye spent years maliciously plotting to join ISIS and murder Americans. His evil plans failed thanks to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Their swift action and coordination stopped Teekaye from carrying out his deadly plans against Americans,” said Jimmy Paul, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore field office.
However, court records reveal that Teekaye is a severely mentally ill person who had been talking to an undercover FBI agent since he was 16.
According to the Oct. 15, 2024, criminal complaint, Teekaye came on the FBI’s radar shortly after September 2019, when he “admitted he wanted to cut the head off of [a fellow student] and kill him.” Teekaye was subject to an emergency mental health petition at the time.
The FBI learned of Teekaye about three months later, when agents learned that he was “expressing extremist Islamist ideology” online.
“Shortly thereafter, TEEKAYE began interacting with a male Online Covert Employee (“OCE”),” the criminal complaint said.
In January 2020, the FBI spoke with Teekaye’s parents and searched his laptop. Teekaye was then subject of another emergency petition and was hospitalized at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington. FBI agents interviewed him again a month later—he’s still only 16 at the time—and he told him he wanted “to go overseas as a fighter had waned, and he felt he was being used by people online,” the complaint said.
“He also said that because the FBI was watching him, he would not have a chance to pursue efforts to fight overseas,” the complaint added.
Teekaye’s since been diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia and a slew of other disorders.
Fast forward more than two years, and Teekaye was arrested for brandishing a knife outside of a school. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, and was given Probation Before Judgment and placed on supervised probation until September 2025.
In March 2023, Teekaye again communicated with an undercover agent online about Islamic terrorism. In these conversations, he started mulling the idea of joining an ISIS affiliate in Africa, according to the criminal complaint.
“In WhatsApp conversations with the UCO on April 12-13, 2023, TEEKAYE clarified that ‘plan A’ is to go overseas, specifically West Africa, to conduct an attack. TEEKAYE stated that ‘plan B’ is to conduct an attack in the U.S., but it is ‘too risky anyways,’” the complaint said.
It appears as though the undercover agent was a female luring him with promises of a romantic relationship, and baiting him into a potential attack on Israelis. The two discussed marriage repeatedly, according to the FBI complaint, and at one point Teekaye accused the agent of “talking like you want to do an attack with me” when they were discussing Israel.
Last week, the FBI arrested a schizophrenic 21-year-old who had been communicating with an undercover agent since he was 16.
It sure looks like an undercover agent was trying to bait him into a plot against Israelis. The defendant even accuses the undercover of “talking like you… pic.twitter.com/mqzDUv3eEY— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 22, 2024
By early October 2024, Teekaye had obtained a visa and a plane ticket to travel to Turkey.
“On October 14, 2024, FBI agents observed TEEKAYE travel to BWI airport in a rideshare vehicle, check in for flight BA 228 bound for London, and proceed through the security checkpoint. TEEKAYE was arrested at approximately 5:59PM,” the complaint said.
“After being advised of his Miranda rights, TEEKAYE made the following unprovoked statements, among others: ‘I’ll just get out in 20 years and do something here. Okay? Okay? You will never stop me. Jihad will never stop,’” the complaint added.
“While making these statements, TEEKAYE began kicking one of the FBI arresting agents. He then stated that he hoped to ‘kill a guard’ while in prison.”
Teekaye faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
