Police arrested a man in Bloomfield, Connecticut for holding a pellet rifle near President Obama's motorcade path Monday.
27 year-old Joseph Stravinskas, a homeless man who was just about to start target shooting cans in a secluded area in the woods was approached by officers posted along Obama's route back to Bradley International Airport.
Initially, reports claimed that Stravinskas wielded the bb gun as Obama's vehicle rolled by, but that detail was quickly dashed. Bloomfield Police Captain Stephen Hajdasz told the New York Daily News that Obama was still at the University of Hartford, where he gave a speech on gun control, when Stravinskas was being handcuffed and tossed into the back of a cop car.
According to the police statement, Stravinskas was pacing back and forth in the wooded clearing when officers heard leaves rustling beneath his feat. They approached Stravinskas, who "turned toward the officer, dropping his aim but not dropping the weapon, resulting in the weapon being pointed in the direction of the officers."
Apparently Stravinskas put up a fight, then eventually set his arms down. He was subsequently arrested and charged with breach of peace in the second degree, along with threatening in the second degree and interfering with police business.
There's no evidence that indicates Stravinskas was there with his weapon intending upon hurting the president. He is to be arraigned Tuesday in Hartford Superior Court and is being held on $15,000 bail.
Obama visited Connecticut in light of the recent Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, and told attendees in his speech at the University of Hartford to demand Congress enforce further "common sense" gun control practice.
Obama met many Newtown family members who were directly affected in the Sandy Hook tragedy at the event, many of them having lost loved ones in the shooting.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
