WASHINGTON—A Missouri man flew to Washington, rented a U-Haul truck, and drove straight to the White Home, the place he crashed the truck right into a safety barrier and commenced waving round a Nazi flag within the end result of a six-month plan to “seize energy” from the federal government, authorities stated Tuesday.
Sai Varshith Kandula, 19, eliminated the flag from a backpack shortly after smashing the field truck into the barrier close to the north aspect of Lafayette Sq. on Monday round 10 p.m., in accordance with 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 instructed Secret Service brokers that he’d flown from St. Louis on a one-way ticket that night time after months of planning. He wished to “get to the White Home, seize energy, and be put in control of the nation,” and he stated he would “kill the president, if that’s what I’ve to do,” costs state.
Kandula, who’s from the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield, Missouri, stated he purchased the flag on-line as a result of he admires the Nazis’ “nice historical past” in addition to their “authoritarian nature, eugenics, and their one world order.”
Nobody was injured within the crash. No explosives or weapons had been discovered within the truck or on Kandula.
Kandula rented the U-Haul in Herndon, Virginia, and had a legitimate contract in his personal title, the corporate stated. Folks can lease a truck from U-Haul at age 18, and there have been no pink flags on his rental file that may have prevented the contract, in accordance with U-Haul.
A witness, Chris Zaboji, stated the driving force smashed into the barrier at the least twice. Zaboji, a 25-year-old pilot who lives in Washington, was ending a run shut by Lafayette Sq. when he heard the loud crash of the U-Haul truck hitting the barrier. He stated 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 once more, I made a decision I wished to get out of there,” he stated.
Officers from the Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Division 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 costs, 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 Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated. “He’s relieved that nobody was injured final night time,” she stated.
The U.S. Secret Service screens a whole bunch of people that have made threats to the president, however 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 legal professional was listed for Kandula in court docket data, a number of phone numbers listed underneath his surname in public data had been out of service, and efforts by The Related Press to succeed in kin who might converse on his behalf on Tuesday weren’t instantly profitable. Folks at a Missouri residence listed as being related to Kandula wouldn’t converse with an AP reporter.
Lafayette Sq. presents maybe the very best view of the White Home accessible to the general public, and Kandula despatched a number of individuals operating when he drove onto the sidewalk to succeed in the barrier.
The sq. has additionally lengthy been one of many nation’s most outstanding venues for demonstrations. The park was closed for almost 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, however it reopened in Might 2021.
U-Haul is a shifting truck, trailer, and self-storage rental firm primarily based in Phoenix.
By Lindsay Whitehurst
Originally posted 2023-05-24 05:40:02.