Colorado police probe possible murder plot against Obama at Democratic Convention
August 26, 2008, 11:35 AM (GMT+02:00)
A police spokesman reported Tuesday, Aug. 26, the day after the opening of the Democratic convention to crown Barak Obama its presidential candidate, that three people are under arrest in a possible plot to assassinate the candidate.
In a routine stop of cars, the Colorado police found in one vehicle two high-powered sniper rifles, ammo, a bullet-proof vest, walkie-talkies and amphetamines. They arrested the driver, a man who tried to escape by jumping out of a hotel window and a girl. The Denver authorities say is too early to say if how serious the assassination plot was. “
A far-right white supremacist group” has been mentioned. The photos of 28-year old Tharin Robert Gartrell, the driver, and Shawn Robert Adolf, 33, were later released. A local TV station quotes one suspect as replying in the affirmative when asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He is quoted as saying they were “going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a… rifle,,, sighted at 750 yards.”
A third man, Nathan Johnson, 32, said the other two had planned “to kill Obama at his acceptance speech.”
In addition to the local law enforcement authorities, the anti-drug and anti-terror agencies, the FBI and the Secret Service are involved in the investigation.
Obama himself was outside Denver. He is due to accept the presidential nomination in the convention’s closing session Thursday at an open-air stadium, where the risk of attack is greater than in the closed convention hall.
