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Man Pleads Guilty of Attempted Use of Weapon of Mass Destruction in Texas

The twisted wannabe-killer was only caught because neighbors called the cops after he blew up an Xbox in his backyard last summer.

A 33-year-old man has pleaded guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction after blowing up a bomb and plotting to use his skills at a local school. Neighbors reported Erfan Salmanzadeh after he blew up an Xbox in his backyard on July 26, 2021. According to the Northern District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s office, plea papers revealed the Iranian-born naturalized citizen of the U.S. claimed he “wanted to see how much damage such an explosion would cause.” When cops arrived, he then stashed a suicide vest and nail bomb in an alleyway and flushed homemade explosive materials down the toilet. Cops also found a video from July last year where Salmanzadeh warns in Farsi: “We are going to blast the school,” as he displays to the camera a nail bomb “filled with shrapnel,” the suicide vest “filled with pipes labeled dynamite,” a suitcase “filled with a container labeled explosives,” and a backpack “filled with bottles labeled explosives.” In plea papers, he claimed he learned how to build a bomb on the internet. “Armed with internet research, this defendant was able to create homemade explosives capable of wreaking mass casualties—casualties he dreamed of inflicting on innocent high schoolers,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “Without vigilant neighbors who reported the sound of the explosion to authorities and immediate law enforcement intervention, this may have ended in tragedy.” Salmanzadeh now faces up to life in federal prison.