ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS: Authorities are investigating a possible threat against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Aurora police arrested a longtime drug user Sunday afternoon during a routine traffic stop where the man was seen “weaving,” sources said. Two possible other accomplices also were arrested, according to police. Police found four weapons, including two rifles and two handguns, in a rented pickup. That arrest then led authorities to a second man staying at the Cherry Creek Hotel at 600 South Colorado Blvd in Glendale. When authorities knocked on the man’s door, they say he jumped out of his sixth floor window, landing on an awning and running from the scene. They say they soon found him with a broken ankle. He too was arrested. One of the suspects has been identified as 28-year-old Tharin Gartrell. Police found a rifle in the man’s pickup and methamphetamine. The man allegedly made comments
about Sen. Obama, but sources wouldn’t say what they were. It was enough, however, to make police believe the man might have been plotting to somehow harm Obama. A second source told CBS4 News that they are concerned they may have come upon a possible “assassination plot.” MORE
CBS NEWS: “It’s premature to say that it was a valid threat or that these folks have the ability to carry it out,” said a U.S. government official familiar with the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Law enforcement sources told CBS affiliate KCNC in Denver that one of the suspects “was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative.” One of the suspects told authorities they were “going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a … rifle … sighted at 750 yards,” reported KCNC. MORE