Alleged ISIS sympathizer was 'aggressive panhandler'
John Page remembers shooing Emanuel Lutchman from outside the restaurant/bar Page co-owns, the Merchants Grill.
Lutchman clearly had mental health issues, and was occasionally wandering outside Merchants Grill and picking up cigarette butts, Page said. He forced him away from there and outside the nearby L&M Lanes bowling operation several times.
On Thursday, Page learned that the man whom he knew for his loitering was now accused of planning an attack on Merchants Grill on New Year's Eve. Page kept the establishment open, adding extra security.
On a day in which Lutchman became national news, another example of the Islamic State allegedly finding sympathizers among the troubled and vulnerable, Page had a very different opinion of the man accused of offering "material support" to terrorists. In fact, Page said, he was at first concerned when he was told by FBI and police that his establishment was a target — then he found out just who had been arrested.
"I would consider him to be an aggressive panhandler," Page said.
Story: Feds: Man planned terror attack at Rochester bar
Federal authorities Thursday said that Lutchman had planned to attack Merchants Grill with knives and a machete, possibly plotting to take some people hostage and kill others. The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested him Wednesday.
The portrait of Lutchman that emerged Thursday was, as Page indicated, a mentally unstable man with little foothold in the community or, perhaps, even in reality. Documents and interviews show that he was accused of domestic violence against a girlfriend in 2015, and had been arrested several times because of concerns for his mental well-being.
"He was a good kid, so I don't know what happened between now and (his youth)," said his former stepmother, Charma Lutchman.
She said she did not believe it when she heard he'd been accused of aiding terrorists, "but then when I seen it I said, 'That's him.'
"I saw his picture," she said. "I'm like shocked."
Merchants Grill target of terror plot, co-owner says
More information about Lutchman's life will likely come available in coming weeks, but Charma Lutchman was able to offer some broad outlines Thursday.
She said she hasn't seen him in three years, since he came out of prison after a robbery conviction. He was then with his father, who lives in Syracuse, she said. His father could not be reached Thursday.
Early in Emanuel's life he lived with grandparents in New York City, according to Charma Lutchman. While young, he was struck by a car — an accident Charma said transformed him from a boisterous happy-go-lucky boy to a more withdrawn child.
"He wasn't the same boy I knew after he got hit by a car," she said. "He was different, more quiet."
Lutchman was 16 when arrested locally with two others and accused of robbing a Rochester man of "a cell phone, baseball hat, bus pass, library cards and cigarettes," court papers show.
Timeline: How Emanuel Lutchman was caught
Quick look: What we know so far about the suspect & the plot
He pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery, and was sentenced to five years. While juvenile criminal records are sealed, the fact that Lutchman at age 16 received a five-year sentence for the robbery indicates he likely had previous encounters with law enforcement.
Lutchman was released on parole supervision in 2010. In the next three-plus years, he was returned to prison three times. Records were not available Thursday about the particulars of his parole violations.
He was released Christmas Eve, 2013, having completed the maximum time his sentence allowed for parole supervision.
In 2015, records show, Lutchman spent four months in the local jail on misdemeanor charges of petit larceny and menacing his girlfriend.
Lutchman was scheduled to appear in state court on Jan. 11 on his pending domestic violence charges. It's likely that date will be postponed.