Secret Service Captures Obama Assasin: Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez |
Posted: November 21, 2011 |
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was charged on Nov. 17, 2011 with attempting to assassinate President Obama. Mr. Ortega-Hernandez was arrested on Nov. 15 on suspicion of shooting with a semiautomatic rifle at the White House on Nov. 11. The Secret Service reported finding that at least one bullet had struck the presidential residence in Washington, D.C. According to a complaint filed in federal court Mr. Ortega-Hernandez had told one friend that the president was “the Antichrist” and that he “needed to kill him.” He was also “convinced the federal government is conspiring against him” and had become “increasingly more agitated” before he disappeared from Idaho in October, the complaint said. Law enforcement officials discovered evidence that linked to his identity in a black Honda Accord with an Idaho license plate. The car was found abandoned on the lawn of the United States Institute of Peace, about seven blocks west of the White House. At least two witnesses had seen the car pause on Constitution Avenue in front of the Ellipse — a grassy field between the White House and the Washington Monument — as gunshots were fired out of its passenger window, after which the vehicle sped away, according to the complaint. A search of the car found a Romanian-made semiautomatic rifle with a “large scope” mounted on its top, nine spent cartridges, and large amounts of ammunition of the same size as a bullet later found at the White House. Two of Mr. Ortega-Hernandez’s acquaintances in Idaho said he owned such a weapon, the complaint said. The Secret Service has said it did not have Mr. Ortega-Hernandez on record as having made any threats against the president. But after the shooting, several acquaintances said he had been fixated on Mr. Obama. The president and the first lady, Michelle Obama, were out of town at the time of the shooting. Mr. Ortega-Hernandez, previously referred to in a warrant as Oscar Ramiro Ortega, was arrested at a hotel near Indiana, Pa. He has a background of legal problems and a history of aberrant behavior. During an encounter earlier on Nov. 11 with the police in Arlington County, Va., Mr. Ortega said he was from Idaho Falls. According to Sgt. David Schlosser of the Capitol Police, Mr. Ortega-Hernandez has criminal records in Idaho, Texas, and Utah, including for drugs, underage drinking, domestic violence, resisting arrest and assault on a police officer. Public records indicated much the same thing. Secret Service agents heard multiple shots around 9 p.m. on Nov. 11 and witnessed a car speeding away, westbound, on Constitution Avenue, according to a Secret Service official. The Secret Service said that one bullet had been stopped by the reinforced windows installed inside the historic exterior glass used at the White House. The shooting came from roughly 600 or 800 yards south of the White House, just outside the outer security perimeter of the White House complex, a heavily patrolled zone that extends to the south edge of the Ellipse. The spot, usually open to the public, is nonetheless one of the most guarded parts of the city, with United States Park Police patrolling the National Mall and District of Columbia police on the streets. In addition, the Secret Service, with a uniformed force of 1,400 officers, has agents on guard at fixed positions on the White House grounds, as well as patrolling nearby in cars and on bicycles. The last known incident in which bullets struck the White House occurred in 1994, when one round fired from the area of the Ellipse penetrated a first-floor window and landed in the State Dining Room, and another was found in a Christmas tree near the South Portico. President Clinton and his wife and daughter were sleeping upstairs at the time. No one was hurt. The incident came as a review of White House security was already under way.
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