White House shooting suspect charged
A man accused of firing an assault rifle near the White House has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president of the United States or a member of his staff, CNN reported.
CNN said a federal prosecutor made the announcement at a federal court hearing Thursday.
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, appeared in federal court in Pittsburgh, USA Today reported.
Ortega is suspected of firing an AK-47 rifle Friday near the White House. Authorities said they found what they claim is Ortega's abandoned car near the shooting incident, and inside it was a semiautomatic weapon. They then began looking for Ortega.
Authorities in Pennsylvania found Ortega on Wednesday at a hotel near Indiana, Pa.
On Wednesday, the Secret Service found a bullet fired into a White House window. The bullet smashed the exterior glass but was stopped from entering the interior by special anti-ballistic glass, the Associated Press reported.
A second round of ammunition was found outside the White House.
The New York Daily News reported that Ortega has prior arrests in three different states for drug crimes and assaulting a cop. Citing unnamed sources, it also stated that Ortega "had a beef of some kind with President Obama." That has not been independently verified.
President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were not in the White House at the time of the shooting
This article originally appeared on GlobalPost.
