By LINDSAY WHITEHURST (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Missouri man flew to Washington, rented a U-Haul truck and drove straight to the White House, the place he crashed the truck right into a safety barrier and started waving round a Nazi flag within the fruits of a six-month plan to “seize power” from the federal government, authorities mentioned Tuesday.
Sai Varshith Kandula, 19, eliminated the flag from a backpack shortly after smashing the field truck into the barrier close to the north facet of Lafayette Square on Monday round 10 p.m., in response to charging paperwork. He was shortly arrested by a U.S. Park Police officer who rushed to the scene of the crash and noticed him take out the flag.
Kandula later informed Secret Service brokers that he’d flown from St. Louis on a one-way ticket that evening after months of planning. He needed to “get to the White House, seize power, and be put in charge of the nation,” and he mentioned he would “kill the president, if that’s what I have to do,” expenses state.
Kandula, who’s from the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield, Missouri, mentioned he purchased the flag on-line as a result of he admires the Nazis’ “great history” in addition to their “authoritarian nature, eugenics, and their one world order.”
No one was injured within the crash. No explosives or weapons have been discovered within the truck or on Kandula.
Kandula rented the U-Haul in Herndon, Virginia, and had a sound contract in his personal identify, the corporate mentioned. People can hire a truck from U-Haul at age 18, and there have been no pink flags on his rental document that will have prevented the contract, in response to U-Haul.
A witness, Chris Zaboji, mentioned the motive force smashed into the barrier a minimum of twice. Zaboji, a 25-year-old pilot who lives in Washington, was ending a run shut by Lafayette Square when he heard the loud crash of the U-Haul truck hitting the barrier. He mentioned he took out his telephone and captured the second the truck struck the barrier once more earlier than he heard sirens approaching.
“When the van backed up and rammed it again, I decided I wanted to get out of there,” he mentioned.
Officers from the Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department searched the truck after the crash. Video posted by WUSA-TV exhibits a police officer on the scene choosing up and inventorying a number of items of proof from the truck, together with a Nazi flag.
Kandula was arrested on a number of expenses, and prosecutors charged him with damaging U.S. property.
Biden was briefed on the crash Tuesday morning by the Secret Service and Park Police, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned. “He’s relieved that no one was injured last night,” she mentioned.
The U.S. Secret Service displays a whole lot of people that have made threats to the president, nevertheless it’s not clear whether or not Kandula was on their radar in any respect or if he had threatened the president earlier than, which might set off the Secret Service’s involvement.
No lawyer was listed for Kandula in courtroom data, a number of phone numbers listed beneath his surname in public data have been out of service, and efforts by The Associated Press to achieve relations who may converse on his behalf on Tuesday weren’t instantly profitable. People at a Missouri dwelling listed as being related to Kandula wouldn’t converse with an AP reporter.
Lafayette Square presents maybe one of the best view of the White House accessible to the general public, and Kandula despatched a number of individuals working when he drove onto the sidewalk to achieve the barrier.
The sq. has additionally lengthy been one of many nation’s most distinguished venues for demonstrations. The park was closed for practically a 12 months after federal authorities fenced off the realm on the peak of nationwide protests over policing following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, nevertheless it reopened in May 2021.
U-Haul is a shifting truck, trailer and self-storage rental firm based mostly in Phoenix.
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Associated Press writers Jim Salter in Chesterfield, Missouri, Colleen Long and Michael Balsamo in Washington and newsgathering producer Beatrice Dupuy in New York contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”