Jack Teixeira wanted to kill ‘tons of people’ and had Russian army pendants on bedroom wall

The 21-year-old member of the US air force who was behind the Pentagon leaks expressed a desire to kill a “ton of people” and had Russian military pendants hanging on the wall of his camouflage-decorated bedroom, court documents have revealed.

Jack Teixeira, a former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, has been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified information when a trove of documents relating to US intelligence on the war in Ukraine and other international matters was discovered on Discord, an online social media platform especially popular among gamers.

Court documents have revealed that Mr Teixeira “regularly made comments about violence and murder”, including stating that he would “‘kill a [expletive] ton of people’ because it would be ‘culling the weak minded’”.

He faces 25 years in prison “and potentially far more”, according to the document from prosecutors appealing for his pre-trial detention.

Mr Teixeira is considered a continued danger to national security, and the document expressed concern that “hostile nation states” could “offer him safe harbour and facilitate his escape from the United States. The nature of the materials that the Defendant accessed, not all of which have publicly surfaced, have the capacity to cause additional, exceptionally grave damage to the US national security if disclosed,” the document read.

Part of the evidence submitted to the court are shocking photographs of Mr Teixeira’s bedroom, which has camouflage wallpaper and netting draped across one wall. Mr Teixeira had pinned a pendant of the Russian armed forces to his noticeboard, and human silhouettes used as targets pierced with several bullet holes decorated the walls.

According to the document, “the Defendant kept his gun locker approximately two feet from his bed” which held “multiple weapons, including handguns, bolt-action rifles, shotguns, an AK-style high-capacity weapon, and a gas mask”.   FBI agents also found ammunition and tactical pouches on his dresser and “what appeared to be a silencer-style accessory in his desk drawer”.

The shocking revelations raise questions as to how Mr Teixeira was admitted into the Air Force and had obtained such high security clearance. Evidence obtained from a social media platform indicated that Mr Teixeira “regularly made comments about violence and murder”. “In November 2022, the Defendant stated that if he had his way, he would “kill a [expletive] ton of people” because it would be “culling the weak minded,” the motion read.

In February 2023, Mr Teixeira “sought advice from another user about what type of rifle would be easy to operate from the back of an SUV. He describes how he would conduct the shooting in a ‘crowded urban or suburban environment’”.

In the same month, “the Defendant told a user that he was tempted to make a specific type of minivan into an ‘assassination van’.”

Mr Teixeira applied for a Firearms Identification Card on three separate occasions, first in 2018 when he was still a teenager. However, he was denied “due to the concerns of the local police department over the Defendant’s remarks at his high school”.

The documents state that Mr Teixeira had been suspended from high school after a classmate overheard his remarks “about weapons, including Molotov cocktails, guns at the school and racial threats”. When questioned, he said that the comments were a reference to a video game.

Two officers in command of the former guardsman have been temporarily suspended and had their access to classified systems and information temporarily suspended, a spokesman for the US Air Force told Fox News on Wednesday. The detachment commander overseeing administrative support for the airmen at the unit was also suspended.

“Commanders are taking appropriate action as information becomes available.  All suspensions are temporary pending further investigation,” said Ann Stefanek, of the US Air Force.