Updated 3:25 p.m.: Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez has been charged with attempting to assassinate Barack Obama or his staff. He made his first court appearance before a federal magistrate in Pittsburgh today, the Washington Post reports. Police say he fired two shots that struck the White House on Friday night. He will face the charges in Washington, D.C.
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, the 21-year-old man who was arrested yesterday in connection with rifle shots fired near the White House last week, is being described by law-enforcement officials as having an intense hatred for President Obama, the Washington Post reports.
A law-enforcement official familiar with the case, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Post that the motive for the gunfire might have been simple anger: Ortega-Hernandez"hates the president, he hates Washington, he hates society," the official said.
Ortega-Hernandez was the focus of an intense law-enforcement investigation and search that began after the shots were fired on Friday evening. He was arrested at a western-Pennsylvania hotel shortly after 12:30 p.m.
He has a record of arrests on minor counts in Texas, Utah and Idaho, authorities said, but he has not been linked to any radical organizations. Peaceful Occupy D.C. protesters will be relieved to know the alleged Obama hater doesn't seem to have any connections to them, either. The Post reports that, in an effort to determine why he traveled to the nation's capital, investigators searched the Occupy campground near the White House but found no link.
Read more at the Washington Post.
In other news: Cornel West to Leave Princeton.
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