A Phoenix man who traveled across the western United States to sneak backpacks into Christian churches in three states was also assembling bomb-making components in Colorado, according to a federal probe. He was convicted on Friday of a federal hate crime.
A federal jury in Sacramento, Calif., found Zimnako Salah, 45, guilty after an 11-day trial.
Between September and November 2023, Salah visited four Christian churches in Arizona, California, and Colorado while wearing black bags. Salah planted the backpacks at two of the churches, “placing congregants in fear that they contained bombs,” according to a news release by the US Department of Justice.
Salah was confronted by security at the other two churches, one of which was in Greenwood Village, before he could leave the backpacks behind.
Salah went to an unknown Greenwood Village church on November 19, 2023. Kevin Heaton, who is now a captain with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, was working for the church on his day off.
“I noticed a male wearing a red hat retrieving a black backpack (sic) from a light green Toyota Prius parked in the visitor area,” Heaton wrote in a complaint to federal agents. “The male put the backpack on his back and began to walk toward the main entrance.”
Heaton met the man, later named Salah, and accompanied him into the church. Salah approached the church’s restrooms. When Heaton pursued him, Salah turned around, returned to his car, and exited the church grounds, Heaton claimed.
Heaton notified the church personnel. They checked the bathrooms and Salah’s route through the church. They discovered nothing unusual.
That wasn’t the case a week ago in Roseville, California. During Sunday morning services, security cameras saw a guy subsequently identified as Salah entering a Christian church in a Sacramento suburb. He strolled straight inside a men’s restroom, carrying a black rucksack.
He exited the chapel, without a backpack, by the same side door less than four minutes later.
Church officials discovered the backpack, phoned 9-1-1, and began removing children from surrounding classrooms.
According to court documents, one volunteer, a former sheriff’s officer, chose to remove the backpack from the toilet. She later told investigators that, before dealing with it, she believed she “might meet Jesus today.”
She carried the backpack to the parking lot and opened it. A cushion was the only thing inside. The volunteer eventually admitted to making a serious error by touching the backpack.
There were no witnesses to Salah’s attendance in church. But when police arrived, they discovered many photographs on the church’s security cameras. Additionally, traffic cameras near the church recorded a green Toyota Prius with Arizona plates about the same time Salah entered and exited the chapel.
Days later, the Arapahoe County deputy in Colorado received an alert from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Following the Colorado incident, the FBI issued an additional alert. It revealed information regarding another occurrence. Two months prior, a man on a motorcycle entered a Christian church in Scottsdale, Arizona, during services. According to the report, this person was clothed completely in black and wore a black face mask and “appeared to be trying to conceal their identity,” according to the court statement.
Someone dropped a black backpack between seats in the church’s worship center. Police discovered clothing inside.
Later, federal agents discovered the motorcycle used in the Arizona incident at Salah’s former home in Phoenix.
The current residents informed federal authorities that they bought it from Salah’s mother in August of 2023. She’d lately returned to Iraq. Salah still had some items stashed there.
One of the residents told federal investigators about Salah’s unpleasant response to an American flag-themed hat he wore.
Salah, according to the complaint, told the resident, “F*** this country.” I despise America. This country went to Iraq and killed a large number of people.
Federal investigators also attributed two more attempts in October 2023 to Salah. Both occurred at a Christian church in La Mesa, California, a suburb of San Diego. There, a security guard followed a man with a black backpack who was walking in the parking lot. The man immediately left. But security reported seeing the same man days later. The Middle Eastern man lied about belonging to a family he was standing in line with at a children’s ministry. An off-duty police officer working church security then tailed the man with the backpack as he entered a bathroom and walked through an auditorium. The man eventually left the building—still wearing his backpack—and drove off in a Toyota Prius.
Later, investigators pinged Salah’s phone to the area.
Salah was eventually arrested in the San Diego area six days after the Colorado incident. In an interview, Salah told investigators he was a Sunni from Northern Iraq who has been living in Arizona for approximately 20 years.
When investigators searched the Salahs’ Prius, they found a receipt for a storage unit in Colorado.
Inside that storage unit, they found propane canisters (one of which had wiring protruding from the neck), strips of duct tape with nails attached to the adhesive side, wire cutters and more wiring, a battery connected to wiring, what appeared to be an Islamic Koran, and a bed mat.
The storage unit was located 15 minutes from the Christian church in Greenwood Village.
In Salah’s phone, federal investigators found records of social media searches for what they called extremist propaganda. Those records included searches for videos of “infidels dying,” per the court document. Other videos that Salah allegedly searched for and watched depicted ISIS terrorists murdering people.
“This Department of Justice has no tolerance for anyone who targets religious Americans for their faith,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi stated in the DOJ’s press release. “The perpetrator of this abhorrent hate crime against Christians will face severe punishment.”
“Planting a hoax bomb at the Roseville church was not an isolated incident or a prank for this defendant,” Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith for the Eastern District of California added. “His actions were designed to threaten and intimidate the congregation because he disagreed with their religious beliefs”
“People of all religions should be able to worship freely and exercise their First Amendment rights in this country without fear of violence.”
Salah is scheduled to be sentenced July 18. He faces a maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $250,000 fine.