Would-be Assassin Arrested in Attempt to Kill President Obama

AP Photo

Last Thursday on Veteran/s Day, an Idaho man drove by the White House and discharged several shots at the building, with at least two hitting their mark. Oscar Ramirez Ortega-Hernandez believes he is Jesus Christ and that President Obama is the anti-Christ, the reason for the assassination attempt  He was obsessed with 11/11/11, according to his father, and purposely chose that day because it was preordained that he should.  Ortega-Hernandez also holds to the prediction that the world will end in 2012, when the Mayan calendar ends, although he recently focused on November 11, 2011 as the possible end of the world, giving him further incentive to kill the president that day.

Ortega-Hernandez evidently didn't check the president's schedule for Thursday because he and wife Michelle were on a trip to Hawaii without Sasha and Malia.  The attack occurred around 9 pm as reported to the Secret Service.  One of the bullets hit a bulletproof glass window located in the residential section of the building.  The other bullet hit in a another unspecified location.

A desk clerk at a hotel in Indiana, PA, recognized Ortega, who was a registered guest there, and called police.  Ortega was arrested and appeared before a magistrate at the federal court in Pittsburgh and will now return to Washington, DC to face charges there.

His mother insists he never showed signs of mental illness prior to his abrupt departure from Idaho Falls to kill the president, although others who knew him saw evidence of his dissembling. One person said he insisted that the federal government was involved in a conspiracy against him and his behavior changed quite dramatically.

Ham on Wry suggests that the law change so that a plea of guilty but insane could be brought against a suspect.  It would certainly cut down on the amount of expert witness testimony.  It could be used in this case as well as against Jarrod Lee Loughner, who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head in January.  A person who commits a crime and uses an insanity defense still committed the crime.