ISIS Sympathizer Planning New Year's Eve Mass Shooting Charged By Australian Police

A man who was reportedly planning a mass shooting in the Federation Square, Melbourne on New Year's Eve, was arrested by Australian police Monday.

Ali Khalif Shire Ali, 20, from Werribee, Victoria, was arrested on Synnot Street on Melbourne's outskirts by officials of Victoria police, the Australian Federal police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) around 3 p.m. local time Monday (11 p.m. EST Sunday).

Ali appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates' Court, where he was charged with preparing to commit a terrorist attack and collecting documents to facilitate a terrorist act.

According to 9News, given the seriousness of the charges filed against Ali, he could be facing life imprisonment.

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said that Ali, an Australian citizen with Somalian parents, made their list of “persons of high interest” after they discovered he was trying get an automatic rifle to "shoot and kill as many people as he could" around Federation Square, one of the most popular spots in Melbourne to bring in the New year.

The police had kept a close eye on Ali’s actions between the months of March and June and found that the college student downloaded instructions from an al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula website on how to launch a terrorist attack and how to use guns.

Patton said Ali, a known extremist and a sympathizer of the Islamic State group, had been having face-to-face meetings about getting a gun.

"We were monitoring this person. He has been subject to our active investigation and at no stage did he access a firearm — albeit that was his intention," Patton said.

"This is a person who would become particularly energized, for a lack of a better word, when overseas events occurred and would express a great deal of interest in committing an attack himself,” Patton added, ABC News reported.

The suspect was placed under the federal custody after a search warrant was issued Monday for his home, where he lived with his parents and siblings.

Additional search warrants were issued for the suspect’s relative's home and at a computer business where he once had a part-time job.

Patton described the suspect as "a person who's expressed an intention to try and kill as many people as he could through shooting them." He added that arrest made by the authorities was to remove “the risk that was posed by this person.”

As the end of the year celebrations near, Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan has told the public to expect increased police presence. Nevertheless, he said that people can go about their daily business uninterrupted.

"The aim of these terrorists is to foster fear and intimidation, but Australians should be able to go about their business secure in the understanding that the government has worked very closely with law enforcement and other security agencies to keep them safe," Keenan told reporters, New York Daily News reported.

This is not the first time that the counter-terrorism unit of Australian police has arrested a suspect over terror threats around the Christmas-New Year’s time. Keenan added that in December 2016, the police had taken four extremist in custody over a similar plot to attack Federal Square and other public places in Melbourne.

Ali is the 74th suspect arrested in Australia since the country’s terrorism threat level was elevated to "probable" in September 2014. Since then, 31 counter-terrorism investigations have been conducted and 14 terrorism plots have been thwarted successfully by the anti-terrorism unit.