ALBANY, N.Y. (WRGB) — The federal government said she’s a radicalized, would-be terrorist who was intent on blowing up the state Capitol of New York. But questions still remain about who Jessica Bowie is and how she became radicalized.
The 36-year-old woman was charged by federal prosecutors on Thursday after she was arrested on Wednesday. This follows an investigation in which Bowie was plotting an attack on the state Capitol with someone she believed had connections with ISIS, court documents show.
According to those documents, Bowie converted to Islam in 2021 and adopted the name “Aisha Saif.” Prosecutors revealed she lived in Albany on Sherman St., just a block away from Central Avenue.
CBS6 went to Sherman St. and knocked on the door of the home and heard activity inside, but no one answered the door. One neighbor, who didn’t want to give his name, said he didn’t feel safe knowing that a neighbor had been plotting a violent attack. He also said he’d seen the woman, though he had never seen her face since she wore Muslim garb covering her face. The man said he and other neighbors had been questioned by the FBI about the woman.
Court documents quote Bowie as saying she had been “a little girl waving an American flag after 9/11.” But how she got from that to “Aisha Saif,” and now behind bars, is still a mystery.
