Overview
- A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned the indictment on June 18, 2026, charging 27‑year‑old Forrest Kendall Pemberton with attempted hate crime and related weapons offenses.
- Prosecutors say Pemberton armed himself with an AR‑15‑style rifle fitted with a silencer and traveled to what he believed was an AIPAC office in Plantation, Florida, with the intent to target employees because they were Jewish.
- The indictment lists counts for attempted hate crime, using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, and possession of a short‑barreled rifle, with statutory penalties that include life on the hate‑crime count plus mandatory consecutive terms for the weapons counts.
- Investigators say the plot was uncovered after family members reported Pemberton missing, agents traced his location with cellphone geolocation, he was stopped in Tallahassee on Dec. 25, 2024, interviewed on Dec. 26, and arrested on Dec. 27, 2024.
- The FBI led the probe with help from the ATF and local police while the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida will prosecute the case and move forward in federal court; an indictment is an allegation not a conviction.