EXCLUSIVE — A high schooler is facing charges in adult court after Florida prosecutors said online cultish movements helped turn him into a would-be terrorist, records show.

Hillsborough County officials announced January that they arrested 14-year-old Jose Pagan for allegedly possessing child pornography and threatening a mass shooting against a nearby church. Charging documents obtained by the Washington Examiner shed more light on how police say he drifted toward anti-Christian radicalism — and a suspected arson plot that was not previously reported.

The child’s digital footprint showed his interest in a variety of groups glorifying violence and sexual abuse, such as “764” and “No Lives Matter,” according to a police affidavit. Many online communities they mentioned have been linked to other young defendants in the United States charged with similar crimes. Florida officers and the FBI are associating the groups with rising trends of “nihilistic violent extremism,” internet-fueled crimes often rooted in satanist themes and broad hatred of humanity.

Pagan’s mother portrayed him as an autistic child who “always made good grades” in a phone interview with the Washington Examiner. She said he “doesn’t leave the house without anybody” and that “he’s never been violent a day in his life.”

“He was not going to do whatever they’re saying that he was. … He’s autistic,” she said.

Pagan faces 30 child pornography charges and counts of unlawfully using a communication device, attempted arson, and threatening a mass shooting or act of terrorism, court records show.

“I think every child should be able to have a life,” she added, arguing prosecutors are ruining her son’s.

Hillsborough County authorities arrested Pagan as a juvenile in January but later moved the case out of juvenile court and asked for pretrial detention to “protect the community” in an April court motion. Pagan’s parents tried to obtain a passport for him in February as he was in custody, according to the motion. A judge allowed police to execute another warrant for his arrest in April to ensure his appearance in court.

The court set Pagan’s bond at $2,500 in April, though there is no record of him paying it. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

‘I feel like a muthaf***in skool shooter’

Before his arrest, Pagan’s suspected Telegram account was already raising red flags for extremism researchers, who kept records of his alleged statements from a chatroom under the username “j3st3r_ov_insurr3cti0n.” Officers ended up searching Pagan’s electronic devices in his home, where he admitted in an interview to owning the Telegram account and storing sadistic child abuse material for sexual gratification, according to the affidavit.

“A satanist attacking a church, it sends a message,” the Telegram account said in January, according to chat logs obtained by the Washington Examiner. “A message that WE have not forgotten what they did to us. A message that their crimes in europe have not been forgotten.”

The user also posted that “a church is a way better target” than a school, according to the police report.

Pagan allegedly posted about two local churches to target, with he and another Telegram user called “Strauss” messaging each other in December about plans to bomb them. Pagan later told the person that he walked to a church at night with gas cans but left after seeing someone there, according to the affidavit.

Police also noted the account’s posts bragging about having access to household firearms.

“I got a rare look into my dad’s guncase,” the Telegram user posted in December, chat logs show. “I feel like a muthaf***in skool shooter.”

The threat of ‘nihilistic’ cults

Police “located a large quantity of files relating to extremist groups including 764, No Lives Matter (NLM), and Tempel ov Blood” on Pagan’s devices, according to the affidavit.

Pagan’s messages to “Strauss” boasted about how his bombing of a church “will be the biggest arson” for No Lives Matter, officials claimed. Research from American University found five other arrestees in the U.S. were tied to the group since 2024. Authorities in the Netherlands arrested an alleged founder of No Lives Matter in July on terrorism charges, NL Times reported.

The FBI has also targeted hundreds of people in investigations of 764 and similar networks, the bureau said in May. Members of 764 typically build relationships with children online, solicit sexual images from them, and coerce them into further degrading acts on camera such as self-harm and animal abuse. A Tennessee federal court sentenced a 764 leader to 77 years in prison last month for exploiting at least 30 victims globally.

Tempel ov Blood is a similar cult that glorifies violence to destabilize society and obtain spiritual power. An offshoot group on Discord, snidely named “Tempel ov Love,” included a teenager who opened fire at a Nashville high school in January 2025. The shooter killed one student and himself.

Pagan told investigators he was active on Discord, the police report alleged. “Tempel ov Love” was one online group officers allegedly found among Pagan’s chat history, a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Examiner.

Additionally, the defendant’s suspected Telegram account features a profile picture with bullets arranged to mimic a Tempel ov Blood logo.

Telegram chat logs also show Pagan’s alleged account joining in discussions about the Satanic “Order of Nine Angles” cult, or “O9A.” Its followers similarly endorse sexual abuse and terrorism in service of “anti-Judaic, anti-Christian, and anti-Western ideologies,” according to a 2019 FBI document. A Wisconsin judge sentenced an O9A supporter to life in prison in March for killing his own parents as part of a plot to assassinate President Donald Trump and start a race war.

Users flooded the Telegram chatroom with satanic imagery related to the Order of Nine Angles and Nazi symbols, the logs show. Some posts demeaned Christianity, with Pagan’s alleged account referring to Christians as “christcucks.”

Pagan’s alleged posts suggest a “crazy” amount of knowledge about the O9A cult, according to researcher Becca Spinks, whose team documented the Telegram chatroom’s activity. The Anti-Defamation League separately made its own report intended for law enforcement in January about Pagan’s alleged account and chatroom.

“It’s really a testament to how young some of these kids are when they start getting radicalized,” Spinks told the Washington Examiner.

Pagan’s alleged ‘true crime’ fascination

Pagan’s case documents also link him to an online subculture called the “True Crime Community,” which venerates school shooters and promotes mass murder to achieve fame. Members of “TCC” fandoms have become suspects in several school shootings or alleged shooting plots in the U.S., according to experts and media reports.

The Combatting Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy describes the TCC as “a layered online ecosystem organized around the consumption, discussion, celebration, and — at its most extreme — emulation of violent perpetrators.”

Pagan’s suspected Telegram account mentioned having a “roblox tcc game collection” with parts inspired by “norway 2019 and buffalo,” seemingly referring to past mass shootings in Norway and New York. The Florida affidavit also quotes the user as saying he “was in TCC” since age 12. Pagan’s internet search history included the names of highly publicized mass murderers, police alleged.

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The boy’s behavior in front of his family never indicated such dark interests, his mother told the Washington Examiner. She lamented that Florida prosecutes juveniles as adults more often than other states. “I want my son to be able to have a life and be a good person,” she said, holding back sobs.

“This kid has never gotten in trouble a day in his life,” she told the Washington Examiner.