A North Dakota man has been accused of threatening to kill former President Barack Obama. According to a federal grand jury indictment filed on Wednesday, felony charges of burglary, damage to property of the US, terrorising, malicious mischief, threatening to kill a former US president and three counts of threatening interstate communications have been levied against a man named Ian Patrick Stewart. He has also been accused of threatening to injure three residents of the city of Williston in May.
What do we know about the Barack Obama assassination attempt suspect?
While details of the alleged assassination attempt weren’t revealed, the indictment said that Ian from Williston “did knowingly and willfully threaten to kill and inflict bodily harm upon” the Democrat leader between April 20 and May 13.
As for what more Stewart is believed to have done, the court records day that entered Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site on May 13 at a time when the place wasn’t open to the public. The indictment indicates that he threatened a Park Service employee and Williams County law enforcement while he was armed. His alleged actions even led to a building being evacuated.
Given the situation at the time, several law enforcement agencies reported to the location. The site and the road leading to it were eventually shut down during the “barricaded subject situation,” according to Williams County Sheriff’s Office.
Where is the Barack Obama assassination attempt suspect now?
Ian Patrick Stewart is currently behind bars and is being held at the Ward County Detention Centre in Minot. He is expected to make a court appearance on Monday, June 9. As of now, court records suggest that he doesn’t have an attorney.
Prior threats to Barack Obama’s life
In 2011, a then-21-year-old man from Idaho, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, was charged of an attempted assassination of the then-sitting US president. Although shots were fired at the White House, fortunately Obama and then-First Lady Michelle Obama were not in Washington.
Netflix docuseries The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga also digs into the 2013 assassination attempt on the former president. At the time, Mississippi-born Elvis Presley impersonator Paul Kevin Curtis was framed for the incident. It all went down after a feud between him and Wayne Newton impersonator James Everett Dutschke spiralled out of control, and the latter ended up sending Obama and other government officials letters laced with the chemical poison Ricin.
Last year, another “security lapse” instance associated with Barack Obama came to the forefront hot on the heels of two assassination attempts targetting Donald Trump. Reports of an armed man, who was employed for a bar mitzvah, coming close to the ex-president’s SUV in Los Angeles emerged in September 2024. The incident particularly made headlines due to its transpiration despite federal agents being present in the vicinity.