Omar Gonzalez, the former Green Beret arrested on Friday night for jumping the White House fence, had his first appearance on Monday. At that hearing, federal prosecutors made a chilling revelation–Gonzalez had previously been arrested in July with a mini-arsenal and a map that strongly indicated he was headed for the White House at some point.
On July 19, Gonzalez led Virginia State Police on a high-speed chase along Interstate 81 in southwest Virginia. He was finally stopped in Wytheville, an hour south of Roanoke. Police searched his Ford Bronco and found a sawed-off shotgun, one intact shotgun, four rifles, five handguns, and seven loaded magazines of ammunition. Several of the long guns were equipped with scopes and bipods, like snipers would use. Most chillingly, they found a map of Washington and Northern Virginia with a circle around the Masonic Temple in Alexandria, and a line pointing toward the White House. For that incident, Gonzalez is facing charges of eluding police and possession of a sawed-off shotgun. Despite this, Gonzalez was released on $5,000 bond–which is all but certain to be revoked after Friday’s incident.
A state police spokesman told The New York Times that the Secret Service had been alerted about the July incident.? Wythe County Deputy Commonweath’s Attorney David Saliba told The Washington Post that he believes state troopers handled the July arrest appropriately. According to Saliba, Gonzalez told state troopers he was being treated for PTSD. However, they didn’t consider Gonzalez to be dangerous or mentally unstable at the time. Considering the circumstances, the decision to release Gonzalez on bond looks questionable at best. It looks even more so when you consider that Friday’s incident was the second time in a month that Gonzalez was actually involved in an incident near the White House. In August, Secret Service agents noticed Gonzalez was walking near the south fence of the White House and questioned him. He consented to a search of his car, and was released after the agents only found camping gear and two dogs.
The Secret Service is conducting an internal review of both Friday’s incident and the August incident. However, I have to hope the Virginia State Police conducts its own review of Gonzalez’ arrest in July as well. How is a guy who is arrested while armed to the teeth and carrying a map to the White House released on such a low bond? If he was suffering from PTSD, were assurances made that he was indeed being treated for it? And how were those assurances enough to release him, given the circumstances? Hopefully the answers to those and other questions will come sooner than later.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
