Accused ISIS Supporter Boasts About 'Shooting Up' Detroit Church Says He Was 'Immature'

An accused ISIS supporter from Detroit arrested last year February for plotting a terror attack said Monday he wasn’t serious about wanting to “skin people like sheep” and shoot up a Detroit church on behalf of Islamic State.

Khalil Abu Rayyan, 22, said he has matured since his detainment and claimed he was an "ignorant, immature, naive kid" back then, according to the Detroit News.

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Rayyan from Dearborn Heights, Michigan, pleaded guilty in September to a gun crime and making false statements to get a gun, but he was not charged with terrorism, according to the Detroit Free Press.

"I never intended to hurt anyone," Rayyan told U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh during Monday's hearing. "My behavior caused embarrassment to myself, my family, my community and my religion."

Rayyan, who bragged to an undercover FBI agent online about plans to "shoot up" a Detroit church in 2015, to kill a police officer who once arrested him and "behead someone," acknowledged that his words were "scary" and "reckless."

Steeh said he needed more time to sentence Rayyan, which may take up to one week. However, federal prosecutors were asking for 96 months or eight years. The young man has been in federal detention for more than 13 months.

"If there were any doubts that Abu Rayyan was serious, his previous conduct dispelled them. He spent years dedicated to ISIS — promoting and celebrating the terrorist organization’s aims. He exulted in some of ISIS’s most gruesome violence. He bragged about wanting to behead people," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Waterstreet said in court records.

His defense attorney, Todd Shanker, said he was an insecure young man who made bogus threats, according to the Detroit Free Press. Shanker said he hopes the judge would give Rayyan 15 months in prison, which would likely add on to the time he served since his arrest. Therefore, if approved, Rayyan would be released within a few months.

"They're terrible statements," Shanker said of Rayyan’s threats. "but they're false statements."

In a March 2 sentencing memo, Shanker said his client "now has a more informed understanding of his faith."

"Rayyan now unequivocally denounces ISIS — its predations, brutality and terrorism. He now has a more informed understanding of his faith and the bastardization of the religion by radical elements (like ISIS)," Shanker said.

Before Rayyan's arrest, he was living at home with his parents and siblings. He also worked at his father’s pizzeria.