Neo-Nazi leader accused of inspiring school shooting, plotting NYC attack extradited to US
Federal officials extradited an international neo-Nazi group leader they say inspired a teen to commit a school shooting in Tennessee earlier this year and plotted to commit a mass casualty attack in New York City targeting Jewish people.
The terrorist group's leader, 21-year-old Michail Chkhikvishvili, orchestrated deadly attacks around the globe, prosecutors said. The citizen of the nation of Georgia was extradited from Moldova on May 22 after he was arrested in July. He was scheduled to be arraigned in Brooklyn on May 23, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The DOJ said the man, who went by the name "Commander Butcher," was the leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, which goes by several other names including MKY. Chkhikvishvili has distributed a writing called the "Hater's Handbook," encouraging people to commit acts of mass violence and "ethnic cleansing," according to court filings. His "solicitations of violence" led to international attacks, including a 2024 stabbing outside a mosque in Turkey, prosecutors said.
Chkhikvishvili targeted the U.S. as a site for more attacks because of the ease of accessing firearms, prosecutors said in court records.
He told an undercover law enforcement employee, 'I see USA as big potential because accessibility to firearms and other resources,' in an electronic message sent Sept. 8, 2023, court filings show.
It was not clear if Chkhikvishvili had an attorney who could speak on his behalf
Chkhikvishvili has been indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on four counts including solicitation of violent felonies. The charges stemmed from Chkhikvishvili's communications with an undercover FBI employee in which he trained and encouraged the undercover agent to carry out a mass attack against Jewish people and minorities. Chkhikvishvili corresponded with the undercover agent between September 2023 and at least March 2024.
The plot included having an individual wearing a Santa Claus costume hand out poisoned candies to Jewish kids in New York City on New Year's Eve. It later evolved into targeting Jewish people on a larger scale. Chkhikvishvili said he wanted the attack to be a "bigger action than Breivik," prosecutors said. Breivik refers to Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a massacre in Norway in 2011 that targeted mostly teenagers at a camp.
"His goal was to spread hatred, fear, and destruction by encouraging bombings, arson, and even poisoning children," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said last year.
The MKY group is based in Russia and Ukraine but has members around the world, including the U.S., according to a federal complaint. Members adhere to neo-Nazi ideology promoting violence against racial minorities.
The man's arrest came before the deadly attack at Antioch High School on Jan. 22, 2025. However, prosecutors in the New York federal court linked the Antioch shooting to Chkhikvishvili's solicitations of violence in a court filing on May 23, the Nashville Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York wrote to the judge requesting the man be incarcerated before trial. They pointed to several ways his actions have 'directly resulted in real violence,' including the shooting at Antioch High School.
According to the prosecutors, the 17-year-old attacker claimed he was taking action on behalf of MKY and at least one other group in an audio recording posted online before the shooting.
It is not clear if the shooter was a member of MKY or had contact with Chkhikvishvili or other members of the terrorist organization. Chkhikvishvili said the group asks for video of brutal beatings, arson, explosions or murders to join the group, adding that the victims should be 'low race targets.'
Chkhikvishvili's name also appeared in the document the DOJ said was written by the Antioch shooter – a 300-page writing in which the shooter espoused misanthropic White supremacist and Nazi ideologies. The shooter also referred to the founder of MKY and said he would write the founder's name on his gun, according to prosecutors.
Josselin Corea Escalante, 16, died after the 17-year-old shot her with a pistol in the cafeteria of Antioch High School. Another student was injured during the attack. The shooter, 17-year-old student Solomon Henderson, then shot and killed himself.
Contributing: Michael Loria, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Neo-Nazi leader who inspired school shooting extradited to US
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