FBI thwarts mall attack Arrest made in Rockford area.(News)

0 Comments | Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), December, 2006 | by Olmstead, Rob

Byline: Rob Olmstead and Joseph Ryan Daily Herald Staff Writers A 22-year-old man was accused Friday of planning a hand-grenade attack on a Rockford-area mall, but federal prosecutors acknowledged that while the man had expressed a desire to attack a public building, it was a criminal informant who put the idea of a mall and hand grenades into his head.

Derrick Shareef, 22, was charged with attempt to damage and destroy a building used in interstate commerce and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction - the grenades. Federal authorities said Shareef was never close to carrying out his plans. "The public, particularly the shopping mall, was never in danger," said Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. According...