White supremacist manifesto revealed
U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi fought back tears Friday as he recounted attending services at Balaji Temple in Aurora on October 11, unaware that a 19-year-old armed with an AR-15-style rifle and 300 rounds of ammunition was in the parking lot allegedly preparing to carry out a massacre.
The Schaumburg congressman was celebrating Sharad Navratri, a nine-day Hindu festival honoring the goddess Durga, with his family including his 80-year-old mother and 87-year-old father. October 11 marked the eighth day of the festival, which ran from October 3-12, 2024.
"He took one shot at a passerby, and according to police, his gun jammed," Krishnamoorthi said at a Friday press conference. The suspect then returned to his Palatine home and searched online for ways to unjam the weapon before calling a co-worker to say he was returning to "finish the job," according to the congressman.
White supremacist manifesto revealed
Alexandros Paporakis of Palatine faces charges including making a terrorist threat, a Class X felony, and unlawful possession of a rifle with a barrel less than 16 inches in length, a Class 3 felony. Federal law requires rifle barrels to be at least 16 inches long, with shorter-barreled rifles classified as restricted weapons under the National Firearms Act requiring special registration and ATF approval.
Police recovered an eight-page manifesto titled "Why I Fought: A.K.A: (Aurora Shooter's Manifesto)" containing white supremacist and extremist ideologies. The document included references to violence against people of South Asian heritage, particularly those of Indian descent.
"The shooter hated Indians, but his hate did not discriminate. According to court documents, the manifesto that he wrote described Indians, Jews, Black people and other minorities as 'sub-human.' He called himself a 'sociopathic white supremacist Neo-Nazi filled with hatred.'"
Palatine Police Chief William Nord said Paporakis' red Acura RDX was in the temple parking lot for 13 minutes on the afternoon of October 11. "I think we're very fortunate that something much, much worse didn't happen," Nord said Thursday.
Co-worker's alert prevented attack
Law enforcement officials credited a co-worker who contacted police after receiving a call and document from Paporakis outlining his plans, along with images of a rifle, magazines, body armor and tactical equipment. The co-worker contacted Mount Prospect police, who alerted Palatine authorities.
Palatine and Mount Prospect police arrested Paporakis the evening of October 11 as he left his residence on the 1300 block of North Baldwin Court in Palatine. A search warrant execution recovered a rifle, multiple loaded magazines, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, tactical equipment, and a vest containing body armor and a patch displaying white supremacist imagery.
Nord said Paporakis, who has lived in Palatine with his mother for about a year, was not targeting the Aurora temple specifically but was "looking for a large Hindu temple." The Balaji Temple, built in 1986, serves as a spiritual center for the Greater Chicago Indian community, hosting daily worship services, religious festivals and cultural programs.
Hate crimes against South Asian Americans surge
Krishnamoorthi emphasized the growing threat of hate crimes targeting South Asian Americans. Research by Stop AAPI Hate and NORC shows that 43% of South Asian adults experienced a hate act in 2023 due to their race, ethnicity or nationality, with that figure rising to 54% in 2024.
Anti-South Asian slurs in extremist online communities doubled from approximately 23,000 in January 2023 to over 46,000 in August 2024, according to Stop AAPI Hate research. South Asian communities face 60% of all anti-Asian hostility observed in violent extremist online spaces. In August 2024 alone, there were 973 threats of anti-Asian violence in extremist online communities, with 75% directed at South Asian communities.
"Babies are not born to hate. Children are not born to hate. They are taught to hate. This shooter was radicalized by his environment. He was radicalized by social media until he told a co-worker he could not wait 'to kill Indians.'"
The congressman, who has been actively working on this issue, joined four other Indian American lawmakers in 2024 in sending a letter to the Department of Justice and FBI requesting a briefing on the surge in hate crimes targeting Hindus and temple vandalism nationwide.
This incident is part of a broader pattern of attacks on Hindu places of worship. In June 2025, an estimated 20 to 30 rounds were fired at a Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, Utah while people were inside, and in 2023, California reported a record eight anti-Hindu hate crimes.
Officials condemn hate
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle delivered a strong message of intolerance for hatred. "Let me be clear: Hate has no home in Cook County – not in our neighborhoods, not in our schools, not in our workplaces, not in our houses of worship," she said. "A house of worship should be a sanctuary."
Aurora Mayor John Laesch said he was deeply disturbed by news of the plot. "No one should ever feel threatened, unsafe or attacked for freely practicing their faith or attending a place of worship," Laesch said in a statement. "Aurora's strength lies in its diversity, and every Auroran and American deserves to live and worship without fear."
Krishnamoorthi said he will call on the FBI to investigate the mass shooting plot as a hate crime. The FBI began tracking hate crimes against Hindu Americans, Sikh Americans and Arab Americans as separate categories in 2013.
Paporakis is being held in Cook County Jail after a judge ordered him detained during an October 14 court hearing. His next court appearance is scheduled for 9 a.m. October 30 in Rolling Meadows. Class X felonies are punishable by six to 30 years in prison, while Class 3 felonies carry penalties of two to five years in prison and fines up to $25,000.
Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to contact Palatine police at [email protected] or 847-963-6499.
