Point Pleasant man admits plan to aid ISIS with a pressure cooker bomb

TRENTON - A Point Pleasant man admitted in court Tuesday that he planned to build and detonate a pressure cooker bomb in New York on behalf of the terrorist group ISIS.

Gregory Lepsky, 20, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Michael Shipp in Trenton to one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

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Under the plea deal, Lepsky is expected to be given a sentence between 16 and 19 years in prison. Once he completes that sentence, supervised release will be in place for the rest of his life. To see a video of Lepsky, scroll to the top of this story.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 19.

Lepsky admitted in court that he began to formulate a plan on Jan. 17, 2017, to carry out the bombing, authorities said. Lepsky admitted that he went online to find ISIS directives and bomb-making instructions and to buy the pressure cooker and other items for the planned attack. Scroll to the bottom of this story to read the full federal complaint.

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On Feb. 21, 2017, Lepsky was arrested by the Point Pleasant Police Department after a family member told authorities that Lepsky had a weapon and was threatening to kill the family's dog.

When police officers arrived, they called Lepsky on his phone and asked him to exit the home. Lepsky eventually came out, bleeding from one of arm.

While paramedics treated him, Lepsky, unprompted, told them he was planning to kill his mother, according to the federal complaint. He also pledged allegiance to Allah, the Arabic word for "God."

Lepsky said he stabbed the family dog because the dog was "dirty" in his view of Islam.

Police entered Lepsky's home and found the family dog alive, but with a large slash mark on its back.

Police also found a new pressure cooker behind a roll of bubble wrap in Lepsky's bedroom closet, as well as books on suicide bombing.

Lepsky said he had joined ISIS and had plane tickets to Turkey, according to the federal complaint. His cellphone had the ISIS flag as its background photo.

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On Feb. 22, Lepsky told investigators he was going to buy black musket gunpowder to turn the pressure cooker he purchased into a bomb. Lepsky told authorities he regretted trying to kill his family dog because police wouldn't have figured out his plan if he hadn't.

Law enforcement officers also found material published online by another terrorist group that gave specific, step-by-step instructions on how to build a pressure cooker bomb.

They also found a message forwarded by Lepsky from another ISIS supporter stating that if a westerner could not travel to Syria to fight for ISIS, he could conduct a terrorist attack in his home country using improvised explosive devices.

Ken Serrano: 732-643-4029; kserrano@gannettnj.com