The 23-year-old terror suspect who was living in Adams, Massachusetts is being kept in custody until his trial. Now more information about Alexander Ciccolo’s past is coming to light.Federal authorities say they arrested Ciccolo outside his Murray Street apartment July 4th after he received four guns from a person cooperating with law enforcement. It is illegal for Ciccolo to have a gun because of a prior drunk driving conviction. That is the only charge he is currently facing.
On Monday, the Justice Department said Ciccolo, who also goes by Ali Al Amriki, planned an attack using pressure cooker bombs and other explosives at a college campus no later than July 31st, an idea authorities say he got from the Boston Marathon bombing. His father, Boston Police Captain Robert Ciccolo, alerted the FBI last fall that his son had a history of mental illness and was talking about joining the Islamic State terrorist group. During a detention hearing in Springfield federal court Tuesday the prosecution played what Asst. U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Regan said was a nine-minute excerpt of a 90-minute interview the FBI conducted with Ciccolo after his arrest. In the video, the person with the blacked-out face who authorities say is Ciccolo responds to questions saying any place that implements something other than Sharia law, including the United States, is an enemy. The individual also says groups like the so-called Islamic State are doing good things.
“The people that you see being executed are criminals,” the individual says. “They’re criminals. They’re the lowest of the low.”
Ciccolo is at Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island. After Tuesday’s hearing, his attorney David Hoose said he suspects there will be additional charges. At the time Hoose said he only saw 10 minutes of the interview tape.
“Many people hold views that are not mainstream and that other people find repugnant,” Hoose said. “The segments that were played in court that I heard did not actually advocate violence. They were his beliefs on some things that he talked about with the FBI. Who, as the FBI agent indicated, wanted him to educate him about his beliefs.”
Hoose said Ciccolo also regrets stabbing a nurse in the head with a pen after being arrested July 4th. Hoose would not comment on his client’s mental history. Meanwhile, The Boston Globe reports Ciccolo’s parents’ divorce records filed in Suffolk Probate and Family Court, detail a violent past. Reporter Milton Valencia says Ciccolo was suspended from schools in Wareham.
“His parents went through a really tumultuous divorce, I mean they all are, but this one seemed extraordinary,” Valencia said. “It just seemed that Alexander had been at the center of it. He had a history of mental illness and emotional disturbances. A lot of this was placed at the center of his parents’ divorce records and it shows how tumultuous this family upbringing was for him, just a 12-year-old really thrown in the hinder of his parents’ divorce. He had violent behavior. He was suspended multiple times for that violent behavior. He threatened to kill a student…lunged at him with a butterfly knife. He’s been hospitalized at least once for psychiatric treatment. He went through a day program for students with emotional difficulties.”
Hoose says Ciccolo’s mother, who was in court, lives in Berkshire County, but would not say where. Robert Ciccolo was not in court, having asked for privacy Monday. Valencia says it’s not clear how long Alexander Ciccolo has been in western Massachusetts.
“Living in different areas, different addresses,” Valencia said. “We do know that search warrants occurred at multiple addresses in western Massachusetts. So he’s been out there for a few years now. It’s not like he just popped up for the first time earlier this month. How long he’s been out there and what exactly he’s been doing is, I think we are still trying to figure out. But David Hoose said he had an extraordinarily close relationship with his mother.”
Hoose says Ciccolo’s mother and stepfather do not condone violence. Meanwhile, The Berkshire Eagle reports Ciccolo had three alcohol-fueled run-ins with police in Adams and North Adams since 2012. According to the police reports cited, Ciccolo was hostile toward police and had at least one knife with him during each instance.
