BUTLER, Pa. — Federal agents say Jonathan Kramer met up with a man in a Walmart parking lot in Gibsonia and bought a rifle from him.
From there, the FBI says he was planning a mass shooting in the name of ISIS.
“He armed himself to carry out a mass attack against the American people and was doing so right here in the suburbs of Pittsburgh,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard Evanchec said.
Kramer was arrested outside of the Cranberry Park Hotel off of 19 on September 12.
Agents were watching Kramer’s every move after an anonymous tip to the FBI.
“We want to thank the individual who first reported this defendant’s dangerous and troubling behavior,” Evanchec said.
That tip said Kramer was ordering “mysterious packages” to his family home in Valencia and his parents weren’t checking what was inside.
When Channel 11 went to his house today, no one answered the door.
The day Kramer was arrested, a witness exclusively tells Channel 11 he had a strange encounter with him at the hotel.
“This guy approached me and was real off, and he asked me where the reception desk, and I pointed. As he was walking away from me, I overheard him say, ‘Today is the day,’ and that was unsettling to me,” that man said.
After that, agents say Kramer went to the Walmart in Gibsonia, where he illegally bought a rifle off of someone in the parking lot.
Then agents spotted him at the firearms counter inside the Dunhams.
From there, he went back to the hotel in Cranberry, where investigators found a rifle, five boxes of ammo, a rifle scope and pepper spray.
“Jonathan Kramer demonstrated a sustained devotion to the Islamic State of Syria. He made efforts to spread their propaganda and spread ways to kill all in the name of a foreign terrorist organization,” Evanchec said.
Kramer is listed as a 2023 Mars high school graduate.
Kramer had been on the FBI’s radar since 2023 when he was charged with having child porn and his role in a “plot to commit a mass casualty” event.
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