ASPINWALL, Pa. — Neighbors and residents say they’re shocked a former Aspinwall resident has been arrested on suspicion he attempted to join ISIS and plan an attack in the United States.
On Saturday, Sean Andrew Duncan was charged with obstructing and impeding an FBI investigation, one day after agents raided his northern Virginia home.
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"We heard it on the local news and then we saw it on the national news. To hear Aspinwall mentioned as part of this international organization is absolutely unbelievable," Aspinwall resident Jimmy Dowd said.
Duncan moved from Aspinwall to Sterling, Virginia, last summer.
The FBI started monitoring his activities when he lived in an apartment on Western Avenue.
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This past summer, FBI agents obtained his phone records from Allegheny County police who were investigating him regarding the suspicious death of his infant son.
The autopsy was inconclusive; however, those phone records played a key role in the FBI’s ability to get a search warrant.
According to a criminal complaint, “The FBI's review of Duncan's imaged phone revealed numerous internet searches of ISIS-related material, ISIS attacks, weapons, body armor, surveillance and defense tactics, and paintball venues in the Pennsylvania area."
WEB EXTRA: Criminal complaint against Sean Andrew Duncan
Duncan’s family told the FBI he converted to Islam and they were worried that he had been radicalized.
"We kind of tend to think that we know a lot about each other, our neighbors, the good and the bad. But this is something that awakens you and makes you realize this sort of thing can be anywhere," Aspinwall resident Sarah Tuthill said.
Duncan is charged with destroying evidence and obstructing an FBI investigation. He’s scheduled to appear in federal court in Northern Virginia on Tuesday.
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