SEATTLE — A Washington state man accused of threatening to kill President Barack Obama raised a pump-action shotgun at officers who came to his door, but one managed to grab the barrel before any shots were fired, a Secret Service agent wrote in charging papers Wednesday.
Special Agent Bryan Molnar and Federal Way police officer Andy Hensing went to Anton Caluori’s apartment on Tuesday afternoon, after a profanity-laced email landed in an FBI inbox stating: “I will kill the president!!!!! … I want you to come and get me … you can’t afford to call my bluff.”
Caluori, 31, didn’t answer the door for several minutes when the officers knocked, but when he did, he was wearing a black bandolier filled with 12-gauge shotgun shells, Molnar wrote.
Attached to the bandolier was a large knife, the complaint said. A revolver rested in a holster on his ankle, and his right hand was behind his back.
The officers shouted for Caluori to show his hands, and when he finally did, he was holding a stockless, pistol-grip pump-action shotgun, the complaint said.
“Officer Hensing grabbed the gun barrel as Caluori lifted it in our direction, and I grabbed Caluori’s person,” Molnar wrote.
Caluori struggled, but ultimately they disarmed him, he said. The gun was loaded to capacity, including a round in the chamber, and the safety was off.
Caluori was charged Wednesday with making a threat against the president, which carries up to five years in prison, and with assaulting a federal officer, which carries up to 20 years.
He appeared to have several cuts and scratches on his arms when he appeared, with a shaved head, in U.S. District Court in Seattle. His attorney, Kyana K. Stephens, said she intended to request a psychological examination for him, and a detention hearing was set for Monday.
According to the complaint, inside the apartment, where Caluori lives with his mother, was an arsenal, with an AK-47-style rifle in the kitchen, with eight loaded 40-round magazines nearby. In the bedroom, under the bed, was a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, with a loaded 100-round drum magazine.
There was a loaded .45-caliber pistol by the front door, and a number of marijuana plants, the complaint said.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle confirmed that Caluori had served in the Navy and had been discharged within the past 10 years. Further details of his service could not immediately be confirmed.
