Missouri Man Charged With Trying to Plan Terrorist Attack

Federal officials say a Missouri man is charged with helping to plan what he believed would be a terrorist attack in Kansas City.

Robert Lorenzo Hester Jr. was charged in federal court in Kansas City with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The 25-year-old Hester of Columbia was arrested Friday and the criminal complaint was released Tuesday after he made his first court appearance.

The U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City says Hester, who served less than a year in the U.S. Army, met several times with people he believed to be Islamic State group sympathizers. They were actually undercover FBI agents.

Prosecutors say Hester agreed to participate in an attack scheduled for Monday that would injure or kill many people.