An Oak Lawn man was arrested early Saturday morning in Mokena and found to be carrying a backpack of improvised incendiary devices and a map labeling an Orland Park mosque, according to the Will County state’s attorney’s office.
Prosecutors said Mokena police first encountered Hamed Alsaidi, 31, at the Speedway on Wolf Road while the gas station was closed at 2:52 a.m. Saturday. He gave officers a fake name and was given a ride to a different gas station that was open, prosecutors said.
Later that night, police encountered him again walking in the traffic lanes of 191st Street near La Grange Road, and detained him, prosecutors said.
A search of Alsaidi’s backpack revealed several Molotov cocktails, bottles filled with gasoline and stuffed with rags, police said. Prosecutors said there were eight Molotov cocktails in total: six in 12 ounce bottles and two in liter bottles.
Prosecutors said that Alsaidi had a hand-written map with him with the words “you see the mosque” appearing to label the Orland Park Prayer Center, a mosque on 104th Avenue.
He was charged with unlawful use of a weapon and obstructing officers by providing a false name, police said.
The Orland Park Police Department in a statement said it was aware of the arrest involving possible threats directed toward the Orland Park Prayer Center.
“Since learning of the incident, the Orland Park Police Department has remained in close communication with the Mokena Police Department, our federal law enforcement partners, and security personnel at the Orland Park Prayer Center,” the statement read.
Mokena police contacted the Illinois State Fire Marshal, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will continue the investigation, police said.
Prosecutors argued Alsaidi was a flight risk, as he had been twice determined to be an inadmissable alien.
Court records showed Alsaidi had an initial court appearance Sunday at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, where he was ordered released on conditions of electronic monitoring and home confinement by Will County Judge Theodore Jarz.
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A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website showed Alsaidi in custody Wednesday afternoon at Miami Correctional Center in Bunkerhill Indiana.