A 19-year-old college student accused of trying to open fire at a Hindu temple in suburban Chicago was stopped only because his gun jammed, police said. Investigators say he left writings describing himself as a neo-Nazi and naming people of Indian ancestry among his targets.
Alexandros Paporakis, who worked as a Taco Bell cashier, tried to carry out the attack on Oct. 11 at the Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple in Aurora, Ill., about 40 miles west of Chicago, according to police in Palatine, Ill. He is charged in Illinois with two felonies: making a terrorist threat and unlawful possession of a rifle.
His coworkers alerted police. An affidavit filed by a Cook County assistant state's attorney says one of them spoke with Paporakis by phone shortly after the attempted attack and had received messages from him, including an eight-page document laying out his motive.
Police said a search of his apartment later that day turned up a bag holding an AR-style rifle, 300 rounds of ammunition, eight loaded magazines, a loaded extended magazine and body armor. Officers also found a gas can and items marked with Nazi symbols and anti-Indian slurs.
The seriousness of this alleged threat cannot be overstated,
William Nord, Palatine police chief
Court filings say the document called people of Indian ancestry, Jews and African Americans subhuman and was full of racially charged slurs. It indicated he had chosen the temple two months earlier after planning an attack for two years.
The day he allegedly went to the temple marked the start of a major nine-day Hindu festival. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., was there with his family and has since called on the FBI to investigate the case as a federal hate crime.
A sharp rise in online hate
Researchers say the case fits a steep climb in hostility toward South Asians. Work co-authored by Rohit Chopra, a Santa Clara University communications professor, for the Center for the Study of Organized Hate found anti-South Asian hate speech on X ran 240% higher from January 2025 through June 2026 than in January 2024.
Prasiddha Sudhakar, a board member of the Network Contagion Research Institute, said such rhetoric started on fringe sites like 4chan and Gab and, around 2022, hardened into conspiracy theories such as a baseless "Brahmin Organized Government" that echoes a neo-Nazi myth about Jews. She and Chopra said it has since spread to mainstream platforms and see strong links between online hate and offline violence.
Chopra tied many spikes on X to the debate over H-1B visas, which he said the right has turned into a political flashpoint. Indian nationals hold more than 70% of those visas, he noted.
We don't belong to temples and we are not part of congregations,
Pushpita Prasad, Coalition of Hindus of North America
Hurdles to organizing
Pushpita Prasad of the Coalition of Hindus of North America said organizing is harder because Hindus do not belong to temple congregations. She added that many well-off Indian immigrants stay quiet because of uncertain immigration status; Pew Research Center figures show two-thirds of Indians in the U.S. are immigrants, and nearly half of them are not naturalized citizens.
