A homeless man alleged to have threatened a deadly gas attack on Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, on Christmas Eve has been indicted on a federal terrorism charge.
A grand jury in Harris County indicted 33-year-old Aaron Suppes earlier this month on one terroristic threat count for his alleged actions against the megachurch.
The indictment states Suppes “threaten[ed] to commit an offense involving violence” against the church’s head of security “with the intent to place a substantial group of the public in fear of serious bodily injury,” reported Houston Chronicle.
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A district court set Suppes’ bail at $15,000 and gave instructions that he could not go near any church property, including Lakewood, the newspaper added.
Suppes was initially detained at the San Jacinto Jail in Harris County, then transferred to the LaSalle Correctional Center in Louisiana.
During a candlelight service at Lakewood attended by around 5,000 people on Dec. 24, Suppes called an FBI tipline and said he would release sarin gas — an extremely toxic chemical weapon — during the gathering.
Worship continued uninterrupted as security confirmed that there was no actual threat to the property, as the duffel bags that Suppes had left at the church property were found harmless.
Authorities later tracked down Suppes, who was identified through security camera footage and was still within the vicinity of the church. They arrested him without incident.
Lt. Willkens with the Houston Police Department later told the press that Suppes had placed another call on Christmas Eve, making strange claims that implied a mental health issue.
“Called dispatch, called 911 stating that him and his sister were being microwaved from overseas, whatever that means, so obviously having some mental issues,” stated Willkens, as quoted by WLTX.
“Inside those bags, there was some clothing and some electronic devices, there was nothing immediately that alarmed the officers or the security detail. At the end of the day the threat was fake.”
According to court documents, Suppes had been unemployed and homeless for at least six months leading up to the Christmas Eve incident. Initially, he falsely identified himself to the court as a pastor from Florida.
The threat came months after a woman named Genesee Moreno entered Lakewood with a 7-year-old boy and a firearm, then opened fire in a February 2024 attack.
Moreno was killed by off-duty police officers while the child was seriously injured, and a 57-year-old bystander was shot in the leg.
