By Stephen H. Cowles

Special to the News-Herald

The few neighbors who would speak on the record Friday morning were as surprised as everyone else when they saw and read that Lionel Nelson Williams was arrested Wednesday on charges of trying to support a terrorist group.

Williams, 26, was charged in federal court and arrested Wednesday afternoon at his apartment in the 6000 block of Mineral Spring Road. He was living in an apartment above the garage.

An affidavit filed in support of the charges in federal court alleged Williams sent money in October and November to a person he believed was collecting money for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the militant Islamic group that has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks around the world, including in the United States.

Williams also ordered an AK-47 assault rifle on the day after the terror attack in San Bernardino, Calif., on Dec. 2, 2015.

One neighbor across the road would not comment, while another several yards down — Alan Peterson — said he didn’t even know that Williams was living in the apartment.

“I knew his grandfather; he was a really nice guy,” Peterson recalled.

Lonnie Hodges, who lives next door, called Williams and the family “good neighbors. Very friendly.” “I was very surprised [at the news],” Hodges said, adding that he had not yet spoken to them.

At the residence, the man who answered the door politely said he would not speak about the matter.

Williams, who also went by “Harun Ash-Shababi,” is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing on Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Norfolk, according to information provided by U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations has been on Williams’ trail since March, according to the affidavit.

That was when a member of the public advised the FBI that Williams had been posting videos and status updates supporting the ISIL terrorist organization on his Facebook page. The person also reported Williams had acquired the rifle.

In his posts, Williams expressed support for jihad and Islamic fighters, shared videos by now-deceased al-Qaeda leaders and expressed support for so-called “lone wolf attacks,” according to the affidavit.

The FBI conducted aerial surveillance at Williams’ residence and captured what appeared to be muzzle flashes on infrared video, according to the affidavit.

An FBI-controlled persona friended Williams on Facebook in April, purporting to be a fellow ISIL supporter, according to the affidavit. Williams told the person, “I can’t wait for the day that the black flag of Islam exists all over Maryland, D.C., Virginia and Chicago,” according to the affidavit.

Williams eventually provided $250 he believed was for weapons and ammunition to be used in the ISIL organization.

In recent weeks, Williams seemed to be getting closer to an attack based on his conversations with the FBI personas, according to the affidavit.

Williams discussed the possibility of conducting “martyrdom operations.” He stated his desire to marry and said he believed the marriage would ensure his “purity” so that any martyrdom operation he carried out would “lead to his true martyrdom, rather than simply his suicide,” according to the affidavit.

On Dec. 19, two days before he was arrested, Williams wrote to that he was planning to empty his finances to “die without a single dollar in his pocket.”

Williams also responded that the plan was to do a “local” operation.

“It appears that Williams was moving closer to committing an attack that would result in his death,” the affidavit stated.

Williams is in custody, and a preliminary  hearing is set for Tuesday. He could face a maximum of 20 years in prison.