PITTSBURGH — A 21-year-old Butler County man is charged with receiving a rifle and ammunition to commit terrorism on behalf of ISIS after FBI agents intercepted him at a Cranberry Township hotel, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Jonathan Hunter Kramer of Valencia is charged in a federal criminal complaint with receiving a firearm and ammunition knowing or having reason to believe they would be used to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism, including material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, according to the Justice Department’s announcement. Prosecutors have not named an intended target.
Agents stopped Kramer on Saturday, Sept. 12, as he returned to the hotel carrying three 30-round rifle magazines and five boxes of ammunition, the department said. Searches of his hotel room and his home turned up a semiautomatic rifle, two more magazines, a bipod and scope, about 190 rounds in all, an entrenching tool, a prayer rug, pepper spray, about 30 knives and a handwritten note that read, “DoNt look For me[.] IDK what I did buT I cant live In constant Fear[.]”
Officials outlined the case at a news conference at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. Richard Evanchec, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, said Kramer showed a sustained devotion to the Islamic State and recorded a pledge of allegiance to the group.
“Following that pledge, he made efforts to spread their propaganda and shared ways to kill, all in the name of a foreign terrorist organization,” Evanchec said in a video of the news conference posted by The Cranberry Eagle.
Kramer came to the FBI’s attention in 2023, when Pennsylvania authorities charged him as a juvenile and he was adjudicated delinquent for his alleged role in a plot to commit a mass casualty attack, the department said. After an anonymous tip in March 2026 that he had returned to troubling behavior, investigators found he was posting online as “Hamza Al Rashid,” claiming ties to ISIS, offering to share explosives manuals and writing about preparing for his “mission,” according to the department.
“Kramer was taken into custody just as he appeared to be preparing for a mass shooting that could have taken many lives,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said in the announcement.
U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti of the Western District of Pennsylvania said, “Jonathan Kramer’s words and actions during recent months have been profoundly concerning.”
In the announcement, Evanchec said, “An extremely alarming threat to our community exists when an individual reportedly pledges allegiance to a foreign terrorist organization.”
The hotel was the Cranberry Park Hotel, and a guest there overheard Kramer say “Today is the day,” WPXI reported.
Kramer made his initial appearance in federal court Monday. Prosecutors asked that he be held without bond, arguing he is a danger to the community, the department said.