A 29-year-old Marine veteran who hopped over a concrete barrier and fence in front of the White House on Monday told authorities he was on a mission from God to attack President Donald Trump and “make him cry like a b---h.”
Alexander Thomas Miner, of Danville, California, made his way toward the White House’s south fence after hopping the first barrier, and shouted, “Shoot me, shoot me!” toward Secret Service officers, according to a report by NBC4 Washington.
Moments earlier, Miner approached Jim Tripp, a Washington state native who was touring the area, and dropped a backpack at Tripp’s feet.
“He calmly says to me, ‘Wanna see if God is real?’ Then he jumps over three barriers and starts to climb the iron fence,” Tripp wrote on his Facebook page.
Tripp captured video of the incident before being forced to evacuate the area.
Charging documents detailed how Miner said he had no desire to be shot or to kill the president, but that Trump “needs to die,” and that birds and the sky were communicating a message from God to make it to the Oval Office, NBC4 reported.
Miner made additional claims that Trump is the Antichrist and that he was tired of being harassed by campaign emails, according to the charging documents. He also told authorities that Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama were child molesters.
Reached by the Secret Service, Miner’s father said his son was a retired Marine who could be a paranoid schizophrenic, NBC4 reported. He filed a missing person report for his son about three weeks ago, he said, and went on to describe his son as trained, dangerous and “off the deep end.”
The report also confirmed that Miner was already under investigation by authorities in Chesterfield County, Virginia, where a women he had been talking to but never met told police that he randomly showed up at her front door on June 4.
The woman said there was no reason he would know where she lived, NBC4 reported, and that during the following day, Miner sent her 150 to 200 Facebook messages in less than an hour.
For the incident Monday, Miner has been charged with entering and remaining on restricted grounds, a federal offense, as well as attempted burglary in Washington, D.C.
He was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday afternoon.
Jon Simkins is the executive editor for Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War.
