Westminster Man Accused Of Threat On Obama Due In Court Monday
DENVER (AP) - A judge will hear arguments about whether to grant bail to a man accused of telling his therapist that he wanted to shoot children and kill President Barack Obama.
Mitchell Kenneth Kusick, 20, of Westminster is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday for a detention hearing and preliminary hearing.
Court records say Kusick made comments about wanting to kill people to his therapist Oct. 29. The therapist called police and told his family to take him to a hospital, where Kusick was placed on a mental health hold. He is now in federal custody on suspicion of threats against a president.
Kusick obtained a rifle and tried to buy ammunition at a Walmart but the store refused to sell it to him, according to an arrest affidavit. An aunt had learned that Kusick had the rifle and made him give it back.
A Secret Service agent who investigated the case wrote in the arrest affidavit that Kusick told his therapist that he had daily homicidal fantasies for the past five to six years and that he was obsessed with the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings, as well as the Jessica Ridgeway abduction and slaying in his hometown.
Kusick also claimed to have visited websites to learn how to build bombs and obtain blueprints for Standley Lake High School, which is where the suspect in Jessica's death once attended and is in the same neighborhood where the 10-year-old was abducted.
"Some people just want to watch the world burn down, and I'm one of them," Kusick is quoted by the federal agent as telling his therapist.
Kusick later said the attack on children had been planned for Halloween because he was looking for a place where he could have the biggest impact, according to the document. He told Secret Service agents who interviewed him that he studied the Aurora theater shooting and noted what suspect James Holmes did wrong and what he would have done differently.
"I share an understanding of his situation," Kusick said.
Kusick told agents that he wanted to assassinate Obama or a political figure to gain infamy, not because he hated the president. In seeking to arrest Kusick, Secret Service agents noted that Obama had a well-publicized appearance at the University of Colorado on Nov. 1, three days after Kusick's alleged statements to his therapist about wanting to kill Obama.
- By P. Solomon Banda, AP Writer
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