Federal Way man: “I will kill the president!”
Aug 22, 2012, 2:57 PM | Updated: 4:49 pm
A Washington state man accused of threatening to kill President Barack Obama raised a pump-action shotgun at officers who came to his door, but one managed to grab the barrel before any shots were fired, a Secret Service agent wrote in charging papers Wednesday.
Special Agent Bryan Molnar and Federal Way police officer Andy Hensing went to Anton Caluori’s apartment on Tuesday afternoon, after a profanity-laced email landed in an FBI inbox stating: “I will kill the president!!!!! … ‘I’ want you to come and get me … you can’t afford to call my bluff.”
Caluori, 31, didn’t answer the door for several minutes when the officers knocked, but when he did, he was wearing a black bandolier filled with 12-gauge shotgun shells, Molnar wrote.
Attached to the bandolier was a large knife, the complaint said. A revolver rested in a holster on his ankle and his right hand was behind his back.
The officers shouted for Caluori to show his hands, and when he finally did, he was holding a stockless, pistol-grip pump-action shotgun, the complaint said.
“Officer Hensing grabbed the gun barrel as Caluori lifted it in our direction, and I grabbed Caluori’s person,” Molnar wrote.
Caluori struggled, but ultimately they disarmed him, he said. The gun was loaded to capacity, including a round in the chamber, and the safety was off.
Caluori was charged Wednesday with making a threat against the president, which carries up to five years in prison, and with assaulting a federal officer, which carries up to 20 years.
He had several cuts and scratches on his arms when he appeared, with a shaved head, in U.S. District Court in Seattle. His attorney, Kyana K. Stephens, said she intended to request a psychological examination for him, and a detention hearing was set for Monday.
According to the complaint, inside the apartment, where Caluori lives with his mother, was an arsenal, with an AK-47-style rifle in the kitchen, with eight loaded 40-round magazines nearby. In the bedroom, under the bed was a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, with a loaded 100-round drum magazine.
There was a loaded .45-caliber pistol by the front door, and a number of marijuana plants, the complaint said.
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