From Colorado storage unit, Arizona man practiced placing bombs in churches

A Phoenix man who traveled across the western U.S. to sneak backpacks into Christian churches in three states was simultaneously assembling bomb-making materials in Colorado, according to a federal investigation. He was convicted Friday of a federal hate crime. 

A federal jury in Sacramento, Calif., returned a guilty verdict against Zimnako Salah, 45, to conclude an 11-day trial. 

Salah, between September and November of 2023, traveled to four Christian churches in Arizona, California, and Colorado while wearing black backpacks. At two of those churches, Salah planted the backpacks, "placing congregants in fear that they contained bombs," the U.S. Department of Justice stated in a press release. 

At the other two churches, including one in Greenwood Village, Salah was confronted by security before he got the chance to leave the backpacks behind.

Salah visited the unnamed Greenwood Village church on Nov. 19, 2023. Kevin Heaton, now a captain with the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, was working during his off-duty hours for the church that day. 

"I noticed a male wearing a red hat retrieving a black back pack (sic) from a light green Toyota Prius parked in the visitor area," Heaton stated in a report to federal investigators. "The male put the back pack on his back and began to walk toward the main entrance."  

Heaton greeted the man, later identified as Salah, and walked with him into the church. Salah walked toward the church's bathrooms. When Heaton followed him, Salah turned around, walked back to his car, and left the church property, Heaton said. 

Heaton notified church staff. Together, they checked the bathrooms and Salah's route through the church. They found nothing suspicious. 

That was not the case a week earlier in Roseville, California. Security cameras showed a man later identified as Salah entering the Christian church in the Sacramento suburb during Sunday morning services. He walked directly into a men's restroom carrying a black backpack.

He left the church - without the backpack - through the same side door less than four minutes later. 

Church personnel found the backpack, called 9-1-1, and began evacuating children from nearby classrooms. 

One volunteer, a former sheriff's deputy, decided to unlatch the backpack from the toilet, per a court document. She later told investigators that, before handling it, she thought she "might meet Jesus today."  

She carried the backpack into the parking lot and opened it. A pillow was the only item inside. The volunteer later admitted to making a big mistake by touching the backpack.

There were no witnesses to Salah's presence in the church. But when police arrived, officers found several images on the church's security cameras. Also, recordings from highway cameras near the church caught a green Toyota Prius with Arizona plates around the same time Salah was entering and leaving the church.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation distributed an alert days later - an alert that was received in Colorado and used by the Arapahoe County deputy. 

Following the Colorado encounter, the FBI issued another alert. From it, they learned about another incident. Two months earlier, a man on a motorcycle had walked into a Christian church in Scottsdale, Arizona, during services. This person was dressed in all back and wore a black facemask, per the report, and "appeared to be trying to conceal their identity," per the court document. 

The person left a black backpack between seats in the church's worship center. Police found clothing inside. 

Later, federal investigators found the motorcycle used in the Arizona incident at Salah's former residence in Phoenix. 

The current residents there told federal investigators they purchased it in August 2023 from Salah's mother. She had recently returned to Iraq. Salah still had items stored there. 

One of the residents described to federal investigators Salah's negative reaction to a hat he wore displaying an American flag. 

Salah, per the report, told the resident, "F*** this country. I hate America. This country went to Iraq and killed a lot 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 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 Salah's 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 to what they called extremist propaganda. Those records included searches for videos of "Infidels dying," per the court document. Other videos which Salah allegedly searched for and watch 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.