Three Arrested in Possible Plot to Kill Obama, But ‘No Credible Threat’

Criminal Justice

Three Arrested in Possible Plot to Kill Obama, But ‘No Credible Threat’

Posted Aug 26, 2008, 04:34 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Three people arrested in Colorado on drug and firearm charges may have been involved in a plot to kill Barack Obama during his acceptance speech on Thursday.

It is not known if the plot was well-developed or if the suspects had found a way to overcome heavy security at the Democratic convention, the New York Times reports.

Police found two rifles, one with a scope, in the car of one of the suspects in a traffic stop on Sunday in Aurora, Colo., the story says. Also in the car were walkie-talkies and a bulletproof vest. Methamphetamines were also found, Fox News reports. The suspect, Tharin Robert Gartrell, was pulled over for driving erratically in a rental truck, police said.

Another suspect, Nathan Johnson, was arrested by Denver police at a hotel, and a third, Robert Adolf, was arrested after he jumped from a sixth-floor hotel window in Glendale, according to the report. The Los Angeles Times Top of the Ticket blog identifies the third suspect as Shawn Adolph and says he reportedly wore a Nazi ring.

The men may have ties to to white supremacists and the biker group Sons of Silence, according to Fox News.

An unidentified U.S. government official told Fox News, “It could also turn out that these were nothing but a bunch of knuckleheads, meth heads.”

In fact, says U.S. Attorney Troy Eid in a written statement, there is "no credible threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention, or the people of Colorado," reports Reuters.

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