KANNAPOLIS, N.C. - A man who was arrested in North Carolina earlier this year after authorities found his van full of child pornography, firearms and explosives also researched how to kill presidential nominee Joe Biden, court documents say.
On September 28, a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina indicted Alexander Hillel Treisman, also known as Alexander S. Theiss, on one count of knowingly possessing any material containing an image of child pornography and two counts of knowingly transporting using any means and facility of interstate and foreign commerce and in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce by any means, including by computer, any child pornography.
According to court documents, an FBI special agent testified that on May 28, employees of the Fifth Third Bank located at 606 South Main Street in Kannapolis reported an abandoned white Ford van in the bank’s parking lot. Officers from the Kannapolis Police Department responded to the scene.
Through the windows, officers saw an AR-15 style rifle, a box for a Taurus .380 handgun, a cannister of the explosive material Tannerite, and a box of 5.56 caliber ammunition. The bank manager requested that police tow the van.
An inventory search was conducted on the vehicle. The search revealed, in addition to the items seen through the windows, approximately $509,000 - believed to be Treisman's inheritance - books about survival, bomb making, improvised weapons and Islam; drawings of swastikas and planes crashing into buildings, and a number of firearms.
The special agent testified that later that day, Treisman arrived at bank in a green Honda Accord and asked about the towed van. Bank employees called the police, who met with Treisman and and took him into custody.
Officers obtained a search warrant for the Honda Accord, which revealed two additional firearms found concealed in a clothes hamper. Officers also located Treisman's wallet in the vehicle, which contained a Washington state ID card with the name Alexander Hillel Treisman, a California driver’s license bearing the name and a Florida driver’s license with a different name and date of birth.
Police arrested Treisman for carrying a concealed weapon and contacted the FBI.
During an interview with officials, Treisman said he has an interest in terrorist incidents and mass shootings.
Court documents say that Treisman confirmed using different online aliases to post comments "referencing pedophilia and executing those he hates." Records say he initially said he could not recall using this alias, but then later said he made the comment for “shock factor.”
Investigators conducted online searches of the aliases Treisman used and discovered another post by one of the usernames expressing a desire to perform a mass shooting.
After obtaining a warrant to search Treisman's cellphone, they found sexually explicit videos and images of minors. A warrant was obtained to
search fifteen other electronic devices seized from his vehicles, and officials found child pornography on eight of these devices.
According to the records, a total of 1,248 videos and 6,721 images of child pornography content were found on Treisman's devices, in addition to 637 videos and images of child pornography containing sadism and/or masochism content.
Location data from his cellphone shows Treisman traveled from South Carolina to North Carolina between May 26 and 27. Before to traveling to North Carolina, records say he used the internet at a hotel in South Carolina to download child pornography onto one of his laptops, which was found in his possession on May 28.
Court documents say officials found some of the following on Treisman's electronic devices after searching them:
- A note created on October 15, 2019, found in Defendant’s Samsung S9 cellphone describing a plan to perform a mass shooting at a mall food court on Christmas or Black Friday;
- Still images from video footage of the Christchurch, New Zealand mosque shooting that Defendant downloaded on March 21, 2020 and related internet searches;
- A screenshot of the February 18, 2020 Reddit post by username AlextheBodacious referencing pedophilia and executing those he hates;
- An April 8, 2020 internet post by AlextheBodacious stating that he was “going to do a columbine for a while, [but] I think it would better to put it towards something more memorable”;
- An iFunny meme posted by Defendant on April 15, 2020 with the caption “should I kill joe biden?"
Records state that a timeline of internet searches Treisman made between March and May of this year sought information about Biden’s home address, state gun laws, rifle parts and night vision goggles, along with actions Treisman took including posting the meme about killing the former vice president, purchasing an AR-15 in New Hampshire, traveling to a Wendy’s within four miles of Biden’s home and writing a checklist note ending with “execute."
Although the court noted that Treisman has no prior criminal history, taking into consideration the evidence, he will be detained pending disposition.
