SCARY

Man With Loaded AK-47 Arrested Outside Iranian Dissident’s NY Home

The man was observed walking around the Brooklyn residence of Masih Alinejad, an influential New York-based journalist, peering through the windows.

A man with a loaded AK-47 was arrested outside the Brooklyn home of Iranian journalist and dissident Masih Alinejad on Thursday, according to court records and Alinejad herself. The suspect, 23-year-old Khalid Mehdiyev, was observed loitering near Alinejad’s home over two days last week, a criminal complaint said. He allegedly walked around her house, peering through the windows and appeared at one point to try to open the front door. After his arrest, cops found a rifle lying on the car’s backseat, along with 66 rounds of ammo. Alinejad was not identified in the complaint, but she told The New York Times on Sunday that she was the apparent target. “I came here in America to be safe,” she said. “First, they were trying to kidnap me. And now I see a man with a loaded gun trying to enter my house.” Last year, after the unsealing of a federal indictment, the journalist revealed herself as the target of a years-long plot to traffic her back to Iran. Four men were charged over the alleged plot, which the feds believe was masterminded by an Iranian intelligence network.