WASHINGTON (CNN) — After years of thinking it over, Floyd Corkins finally had a plan.
He had bought a gun and learned how to use it. He had loaded three magazines. Then he stopped by Chick-Fil-A to pick up 15 sandwiches, which he planned to smear in the dying faces of staffers he expected to kill at the Family Research Council in Washington.
It would be a statement, he said, “against the people who work in that building,” according to documents filed in U.S. District Court, where Corkins pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three charges related to the August shooting at the conservative policy group.
Corkins told Judge Richard Roberts that he hoped to intimidate gay rights opponents.
The shooting came amid intense debate over the Atlanta-based Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain’s support for groups considered hostile to gay rights.
The research council, a Christian group that focuses on family, anti-abortion and religious liberty issues and views homosexuality as harmful, backed Chick-Fil-A in the ensuing controversy.
“They endorse Chick-Fil-A and also Chick-Fil-A came out against gay marriage, so I was going to use that as a statement,” prosecutors quoted Corkins as telling investigators.
Corkins, 28, pleaded guilty to committing an act of terrorism, interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition, and assault with intent to kill while armed.
Prosecutors dropped seven other charges.
It was unclear whether the plea deal will reduce the 70 years in prison that he could face following his conviction.
Corkins will be sentenced April 29, prosecutors said.
The act of terrorism charge alleges that Corkins wanted to kill Johnson and other Family Research Council employees “with the intent to intimidate and coerce a significant portion of the civilian population of the District of Columbia and the United States.”
It is a District of Columbia law passed in 2002 but never before used.
According to prosecutors’ account of the attack filed on Wednesday, Corkins got into the Family Research Council’s building by telling building manager Leo Johnson that he was there to interview for an internship.
After Johnson asked for identification, prosecutors say Corkins reached into his backpack, retrieved a handgun and leveled it at Johnson’s head.
Johnson ducked and lunged at Corkins before he could fire a shot, according to prosecutors.
As the two struggled, Corkins fired three times, hitting Johnson once in the arm, before the building manager was able to wrestle him to the ground, disarm him and hold him at gunpoint until police arrived.
As he lay on the ground, Corkins said something to the effect, “‘It’s not about you.’ It’s about the FRC and its policies,” according to the prosecution account.
Corkins — who had chosen the research council as his target after finding it listed as an anti-gay group on the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center — had planned to stride into the building an open fire on the people inside in an effort to kill as many as possible, he told investigators, according to the court documents.
If he’d been successful and escaped, his plan was to go to another conservative group to continue the attack, prosecutors said. A handwritten list naming three other groups he planned to attack was found among his belongings, prosecutors said.
According to the documents, Corkins had thought about such an attack for years but “just never went through with it.”
At the time of the shooting, Corkins lived with his parents in Herndon, Virginia, and volunteering at a Washington center for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
In August, FBI investigators said in an affidavit that investigators had interviewed Corkins’ parents after the shooting, and they said their son “has strong opinions with respect to those he believes do not treat homosexuals in a fair manner.”
