An Idaho man accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House believed he was Jesus and thought President Barack Obama was the Antichrist, according to court documents and those who knew him. At one point, he even suggested to an acquaintance the president was planning to implant computer tracking chips into children.
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, was charged Thursday with attempting to assassinate the president or his staff. He is accused of firing nine rounds at the White House last Friday night — one of them cracking a window of the first family's living quarters — when Obama and the first lady were away. If convicted, Ortega faces up to life in prison.
Ortega was arrested Wednesday at a western Pennsylvania hotel when a desk clerk there recognized him and called police.
Ortega's public defender, Christopher Brown, declined comment after his first court hearing in Pennsylvania. Ortega's mother has said he has no history of mental illness, though when authorities were looking for him, they reported he had "mental health issues."
In Idaho Falls, where Ortega is from, a computer consultant told The Associated Press that the two met July 8 after Ortega asked for help editing a 30-minute infomercial. Monte McCall said that during the meeting at Ortega's family's Mexican restaurant, Ortega pulled out worn sheets of yellow paper with handwritten notes and started to talk about his predictions that the world would end in 2012.
"He said, 'Well, you know the president is getting ready to make an announcement that they're going to put GPS chips in all the children, so they're safe,'" McCall said. "... And then he said, 'That's just what the Antichrist is going to do to mark everybody.'"
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| This image provided by the U.S. Park Police shows an undated image of Oscar Ortega. |
Kimberly Allen, the mother of Ortega's former fiancee, said he had been well-mannered and kind in the four years she had known him. But he recently began making statements to her daughter that were out of character, including that he believed he was Jesus. Allen said the family was worried when he went to Utah recently, where he said he had business, and didn't come back. Ortega's family reported him missing Oct. 31.
A person who knows him subsequently told investigators that he had become increasingly agitated with the federal government and was convinced it was conspiring against him, the document said. Others told investigators that Ortega had reportedly said Obama was the Antichrist and the "devil." Ortega also apparently said he "needed to kill" the president.
This is not the first time the White House has come under attack.
In the last 40 years, the landmark has faced threats ranging from a stolen helicopter that landed on the grounds in 1974 to a man who wielded a sawed-off shotgun on a sidewalk outside in 1984. In 1994 alone, there were five threats including a plane crash on the lawn and a suspected drive-by shooting. Another man fired at least 29 rounds from a semiautomatic weapon, with 11 striking the White House.
