Authorities in Denver are investigation a possible assassination plot against Barack Obama. The plot was unveiled just days before Obama accepts the Democratic nomination before an open-air crowd on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech.
Three people were being held in custody, one of whom jumped from a sixth floor window of a hotel in an attempt to escape. Denver police revealed that they had earlier found two high-powered rifles, one with a telescopic sight as well as a bulletproof vest, camouflage clothing, and walkie-talkies during a routine traffic check. At least one of the rifles had been stolen in Kansas. The police also discovered 44 grams of methamphetamine in the car.
According to a local CBS news channel one of the three suspects told the police they were “going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a … rifle … sighted at 750 yards.”
The authorities played down talk of an assassination plot and seemed determined not to allow the investigation to overshadow Mr. Obama’s big moment when he appears before an estimated 70,000 people at Invesco Field stadium Thursday night.
“We’re absolutely confident there is no credible threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention, or the people of Colorado,” Troy Eid, the US attorney for Colorado, said in a statement.
CBS reporter Brian Maass, who broke the story, managed to briefly interview one of the suspects inside Denver City Jail on Monday night. “So your friends were saying threatening things about Obama?” he asked. “Yeah,” a suspect named Nathan Johnson replied. “It sounded like they didn’t want him to be president?” “Yeah,” Mr. Johnson said.
The first arrest was of an individual named Tharin Robert Gartrell, 28, who was driving erratically in a rented pickup truck in the early hours of Sunday morning. The others were identified as Nathan Johnson, 32, who was taken into custody a few hours later at a hotel, and Shawn Robert Adolf, 33, who leapt from a sixth-floor hotel window onto an awning below, breaking both his ankles
Information from CBS and the Associated Press contributed to this report.