As Airman Jack Teixeira rushed home in a red pickup truck – anticipating the FBI were hot on his heels – he delivered a final message.
‘Guys, it’s been good. I love you all,’ he told the tightknit group of teenagers and young men with whom he is accused of sharing classified military documents.
‘I never wanted it to get like this. I prayed to God that this would never happen. And I prayed and prayed and prayed. Only God can decide what happens from now on,’ he said, according to one group member who spoke with the New York Times.
Teixeira was arrested from his home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on Thursday and will face charges under the Espionage Act of 1917.
Details that have emerged since paint a picture of 21-year-old Teixeira as a God-fearing Christian with a hereditary sense of duty to serve in the country’s armed forces.
Jack Teixeira, 21, who was arrested on Thursday for leaking classified US intelligence was said by his peers to have been fascinated by the armed forces. He served in the same wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard as his stepfather
FBI agents arrest Jack Teixeira, an employee of the U.S. Air Force National Guard, outside his home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on Thursday
Armed officers arrest Teixeira in North Dighton Massachusetts, Thursday
In fact, the young airman was serving in exactly the same wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard from which his stepfather, Master Sgt. Thomas P. Dufault, had retired four years ago.
Dufault had even ended his 34-year military career with a ceremony in 2019 at the same air base in Cape Cod in which Teixeira had been working night shifts and which is host to the 102nd Intelligence Wing.
His mother, Dawn Teixeira, 54, runs a flower shop in the area, Bayberry Farm & Flower Co.
She posted on the business’ Facebook page on Veteran’s day in 2021 a tribute to her husband Dufault, stepson, father-in-law, and son Jack, all of whom had served in the armed forces.
Some Teixeira’s peers and colleagues revealed to CNN that Teixeira had a longstanding fascination with the military, well before he had become a Guardsman.
John Powell, with whom Teixeira attended middle school and high school, recalled that he would sometimes carry a textbook on military vehicles featuring tanks, planes and submarines.
Teixeira’s stepfather, Master Sgt. Thomas P. Dufault (pictured center), ended his 34-year military career with a ceremony in 2019 at Joint Base Cape Cod, where Teixeira has been working night shifts
On Veteran’s day in 2021, Teixeira’s mother posted a tribute to her husband Dufault, stepson, father-in-law, and son Jack, all of whom had served in the armed forces
One person who went to school with Teixeira (pictured) recalled that he would sometimes carry a textbook on military vehicles featuring tanks, planes and submarines
Airman Teixeira is enlisted in the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard at Otis Air National Guard Base
Powell suggested he had a fascination with anything ‘military-related’ from a young age. ‘He was dead set on joining some branch of the military, even as a kid,’ he said.
He would sometimes wear camouflage to school and carried a ‘dictionary-sized book on guns’, the outlet was told.
‘A lot of people were wary of him,’ said Brooke Cleathero, who also attended middle school and high school with Teixeira.
‘He was more of a loner, and having a fascination with war and guns made him off-putting to a lot of people.’
Members of the Discord server ‘Thug Shaker Central’, in which Teixeira informally presided and went by ‘OG’, had less cynical views of him, but agreed he was interested in war.
‘Everyone respected OG,’ one member Vahki told the Times in an interview. ‘He was the man, the myth. And he was the legend. Everyone respected this guy.’
The inside of Teixeira’s childhood home in Bristol, Massachusetts, matched photos of the sensitive files on US intelligence and the Ukraine war which have been shared on forums since the end of last year, according to the Times
This document appears to show the state of Ukraine’s air defenses in February and in May, when it is anticipated they’ll be badly depleted
‘This guy was a Christian,’ said Vahki, a 17-year-old recent high school graduate. ‘We have some people in our group who are in Ukraine. We like fighting games, we like war games.’
Teixeira was among the eldest in the group of mainly young men and teenagers, who were keen on gaming, guns and right-wing memes.
Airman Teixeira is enlisted in the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard at Otis Air National Guard Base.
His official job title is Cyber Transport Systems journeyman. The Air Force says such specialists ensure that the service’s ‘vast, global communications network’ works properly.
His first court appearance will be in Boston on Friday, according to the US Attorney’s office.
On Thursday, Teixeira was pictured in aerial footage calmly reading a book on his porch as an armored vehicle crawled discreetly up his driveway.
Video recorded by Boston-based news channel WCBV captured the moment 21-year-old was brought into custody just moments after a reporter from the New York Times had tried to knock on his front door.
Although FBI agents had refrained from moving in on him, they had been surveilling Teixeira for at least a couple of days before his arrest, but feared an armed confrontation with the gun enthusiast, government sources have revealed.
His arrest comes after President Joe Biden said during the third day of his Ireland trip that investigators were ‘getting closer’ to finding out the source.
Biden also said he wasn’t ‘concerned’ about the sharing of the documents that threatened to risk American assets around the world because the information is not ‘contemporaneous’
The intelligence included in the files have included information suggesting Ukraine will soon run out of artillery and potentially risking U.S. intelligence sources around the world.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that rules on access to classified documents could be tightened as a result of the leak.
He said he would ‘not hesitate to take any additional measures necessary to safeguard our nation’s secrets.’
‘Every US service member, (Department of Defense) civilian and contractor with access to classified information has a solemn legal and moral obligation to safeguard it and to report any suspicious activity or behavior,’ he said.
Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder went further than Austin, calling the leak of classified information a ‘deliberate, criminal act.’
And hours after Teixeira’s arrest, Mike Turner, the Republican congressman who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, vowed to ‘examine why this happened, why it went unnoticed for weeks, and how to prevent future leaks.’