Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, the suspected White House shooter from this past Friday appeared in court on Thursday and was charged with the attempted assassination of President Obama.
Ortega-Hernandez allegedly fired several rounds of bullets into the White House while hitting a wall and at least one ballistic covered piece of window pane near the building where the family lives.
According to people close to Ortega he had repeatedly called President Obama the “anti-Christ” and the devil while blaming the President for all of his recent troubles.
After the shooting investigators found a semi-automatic rifle and several boxes of ammunition inside the shooters car which was parked several blocks away on the lawn of the National Institute of Peace.
Under the assassination charge Ortega-Hernandez faces a likely penalty of life in prison along with a $250,000 fine.
After fleeing from the scene Ortega-Hernandez agreed on Thursday to be extradited from Pennsylvania to the District of Colombia and reserved his right for a detention and preliminary hearing after the transfer.
Two witnesses saw Ortega take the shots at the White House on November 11 and the Idaho license plate they gave to authorities registered to Ortega. The shooter stopped the vehicle and took shots at the White House through the cars open window.
A trace of the weapon did not show Ortega-Hernandez as the purchaser.
According to CNN :
One witness — identified only as “W-4” — told investigators that Ortega-Hernandez “has increasingly become more agitated against the federal government, and is convinced that the federal government is conspiring against him,” the FBI agent’s affidavit said.
He “wanted to ‘hurt’ President Obama and referred to him as ‘the anti-Christ,’” the witness said.
Other witnesses repeated the same claim that Ortega-Hernandez said he “need to kill him” and that his comments had “gotten worse over the years.”
Upon his arrest the suspected shooter went quietly, simply asking why he was being detained.
Do you think any shots fired upon the White House should be seen as an act of treason and result in a life spent behind bars?