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The Secret Service has protected presidents for more than 120 years.
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President Joe Biden recently received threats on his life.
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An Alabama man is in custody for targeting the POTUS.
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The potential assassin had a long history of arrests.
(NewsReady.com) – When the Secret Service was created at the end of the Civil War in 1865, its main job was to investigate counterfeiting in order to stabilize the American financial system. The agency still does that, but it’s most well-known for the work it does to protect the President of the United States (POTUS) and other high-ranking officials. That’s a job it did not undertake until 1901 after an assassin killed President William McKinley.
Now, the Secret Service works to keep the head of state safe every day, investigating threats against the POTUS. Recently, an Alabama man faced down the federal agents, and now he’s sitting in jail.
Alabama Man Threatens Biden
On July 10, the White House switchboard received a disturbing message. A man, later identified as John Andrew Bazor, Jr., told operators that he was going to travel to Washington DC to “assassinate the president.” He also said he couldn’t wait to see their “faces when [he] put a bullet in [Biden].”
US Army Sergeant Samuel Kash notified the agency’s Protective Intelligence Operations Center about the threat. Bazor’s phone number was then subpoenaed. An investigation found he had not just called the White House — the man also phones in messages to the Secret Service’s Mobile Resident Office over the same weekend. He claimed the agency ruined his life. Additionally, he contacted the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI to file complaints.
The Visit
An affidavit reveals that a week following Bazor’s threat, agents visited his home in Mobile. They spoke to his mother, who said he wanted her to rent him a car so he could drive to the nation’s capital. She began sleeping with her car keys in her pillowcase.
Eventually, the Secret Service tracked Bazor down at a hotel. His sister was also there and told agents that her sibling needed help for mental illness and addiction problems. A look at his criminal record reveals he has been in trouble for narcotics in the past. The federal law enforcement officers spoke to the suspect, asking him if he intended to hurt the president. He said that he did not.
When the agents called an emergency mental health team to evaluate Bazor, he refused to meet with them. At that point, the Secret Service felt it had no choice but to arrest him. He is currently sitting in jail without bond and facing up to five years in prison.
Copyright 2022, NewsReady.com
