TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The father of a 20-year-old man accused of planning a suicide attack at Fort Riley says he’s glad authorities arrested his son and no one was hurt.
Federal prosecutors say John Booker Jr. was arrested Friday while trying to arm what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb near the Kansas military base. He’s being held on federal charges.
His father, John Booker Sr., told The Associated Press that his son moved out of the family’s Topeka home after high-school graduation. He’s spoken to him four times in the last year.
He says he and his wife are Christian, and he doesn’t know whether his son was Muslim.
The elder Booker says he’s an Army veteran and he did everything a father should do. He says once children turn 18, “parents have no control.”