A man with an apparent obsession with US President Barack Obama has been arrested in Pennsylvania after the US Secret Service, the presidential bodyguards, discovered two bullets had struck the White House while the president was away, authorities said on Wednesday.
One bullet smashed into a window of the living quarters of the executive mansion, but was stopped by ballistic glass.
The arrest of Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez came days after reports of shots fired on Friday night near the White House while Obama and his wife, Michelle, were on a trip to California and Hawaii. The president has since traveled on to Australia, the second stop on a nine-day Asia-Pacific tour, and the White House had no comment on the unfolding events.
Photo: AFP
The Secret Service said it discovered on Tuesday that two bullets had hit the White House. US Park Police had earlier linked Ortega, a 21-year-old man from Idaho Falls, Idaho, to the reports of gunfire.
A US Park Police crime bulletin issued before Ortega’s arrest said he is known to have mental health issues, adding “Ortega should be considered unstable with violent tendencies.”
Authorities are investigating his mental health and say there are indications he believed his attack on the White House was part of a personal mission from God, according to a law enforcement official. There are also indications the man had become obsessed with Obama and the White House, according to two officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.
Authorities said the bullets discovered on Tuesday by the Secret Service have not been conclusively connected with the reports of gunfire near the White House on Friday night. On Friday, authorities found an abandoned vehicle with an assault rifle inside.
Ortega was arrested on Wednesday afternoon at a hotel near Indiana, Pennsylvania, northwest of Washington and about 88km east of Pittsburgh, the Secret Service said. He was in Pennsylvania State Police custody. A tip from someone who saw and identified Ortega led to his arrest, Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie said.
Ortega did not resist arrest, Pennsylvania State Trooper Lieutenant Brad Shields said. State troopers said Ortega had visited the hotel in recent days, and investigators believed he was back in the area on Wednesday. The Secret Service passed out photographs, and a desk clerk recognized his picture and stalled him while notifying police.
Ortega’s first court appearance was scheduled for yesterday afternoon in Pittsburgh, according to the staff of US Magistrate Judge Cynthia Reed Eddy.
Ortega was reported missing on Oct. 31 by his family. On Friday morning, he was stopped by police in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia, during an investigation of a report of a suspicious person. Police took photos of him, but had no reason to arrest him, Arlington police -Lieutenant Joe Kantor said.
A message left for Ortega’s mother on Wednesday at an Idaho Falls restaurant where she works was not returned. Phone listings for family members in Idaho were disconnected.
Ortega has an arrest record in three states, but has not been linked to any radical organizations, US Park Police have said.
Witnesses on Friday reported hearing shots and seeing two speeding vehicles on Constitution Avenue near the White House. -Authorities said they found an abandoned car, with the assault rifle inside, near the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, which crosses the Potomac River to Virginia.
The bullet that hit the White House window was stopped by ballistic glass. The Secret Service did not disclose the location of the second bullet, saying only that it “was found on the exterior of the White House.”
Obama and the first lady had traveled without daughters Malia and Sasha on Friday to San Diego, California, en route to Hawaii for a summit, prior to flying to Australia. The White House had no immediate comment on the shooting or who may have been home at the time.
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