CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Federal prosecutors are charging a Butler County man with receiving a firearm with intent to commit terrorism.
Federal agents arrested Jonathan Kramer of Valencia on Saturday.
A witness, who asked not to be identified, tells Channel 11 he and his daughter were walking back to their room at the Cranberry Park Hotel on Saturday when a stranger crossed their path.
“This guy approached me and was real off, and he asked me where the reception desk was, and I pointed. As he was walking away from me, I overheard him say, ‘Today is the day,’ and that was unsettling to me,” the man said.
The guest says he went back to the reception area to “observe” Kramer.
“As he was picking up his bags off the ground, I could hear what sounded to me like magazines, firearm magazines, rolling around in the bag,” the man said.
The federal complaint says agents later seized three rifle magazines and five boxes of ammunition from Kramer’s bag.
Inside his hotel room, authorities say they found a rifle, two loaded rifle magazines, a bipod and a scope.
Prosecutors accuse Kramer of receiving the rifle and ammunition knowing or having reason to believe they would be used to commit a federal crime of terrorism.
Court documents say Kramer had checked into the hotel after receiving a long black bag from the trunk of a car outside a Walmart. Investigators believe it may have contained the rifle.
“That right there confirms it. I went with my intuition, and I’m glad I did,” the man said.
The U.S. Attorney General’s Office is set to have a news conference Tuesday morning to discuss more details about Kramer’s arrest.
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