18-year-old Davidson County woman planned attack on Jewish Day School, FBI says

An 18-year-old woman living in Lexington, North Carolina, is being held under a $10 million bond in connection with a planned attack on the oldest synagogue in Texas, according to the FBI.

Angelina Han Hicks was arrested just after 11 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, and charged with felony conspiracy to commit murder and felony conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon to kill or commit serious injury, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said.

“A fast-moving, multistate FBI investigation led to the arrests of one adult and one juvenile accused of planning an attack at a Jewish Day School in Houston, Texas,” the FBI reported in a social media post.

“The FBI Charlotte Joint Terrorism Task Force began the investigation Tuesday evening after a tip to a North Carolina law enforcement agency.”

A juvenile was arrested and charged in Harris County, Texas, where Houston is located, officials said.

The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office identified the target as Congregation Beth Israel in Houston, which houses The Shlenker School for “children 6-weeks through fifth grade.” The synagogue is “the oldest Jewish house of worship in Texas,” the Texas State Historical Association reports.

The co-conspirators were identified only as “Teegan” and “Angel” in court records.

Law enforcement officers went to Hicks’ home in Lexington on April 22 and “evidence was found showing Hicks and co-conspirators were planning a mass-casualty event at a synagogue in Houston,” the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office reported in an April 23 news release.

Details of the plan were not released, but Houston station KRIV cited court documents reporting “Hicks conspired to ‘kill as many Jews as possible’ by driving through Congregation Beth Israel.”

Investigators have not released details of a motive, or why a Houston synagogue was targeted.

Station WGHP reports it spoke to Hicks’ father, who said the “over the top” charges were linked to her “playing a dark online fantasy game.”

“She’s no threat to anyone other than being a fantasy video [game] player,” the station quoted him as saying.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston says it has consulted with the FBI and Houston police on the matter, leading to law enforcement agencies “increasing patrols around Houston-area Jewish institutions.”

A synagogue attack involving a vehicle occurred March 12 at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, resulting in the 41-year-old driver being killed by a security guard, the Detroit News reports. The driver’s vehicle “was filled with over $2,000 of commercial-grade fireworks and about 35 gallons of gasoline,” CNN reports.

Lexington is about a 60-mile drive northeast from uptown Charlotte.

This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 12:59 PM with the headline "18-year-old Davidson County woman planned attack on Jewish Day School, FBI says."