Daniel James Murray, Man Sought For Threatening Obama, Arrested

SALT LAKE CITY — Authorities have arrested a man who allegedly told bank tellers while cleaning out his savings account in Utah that he was on a mission to kill President Barack Obama.

The Secret Service said Daniel James Murray, 36, was arrested Friday outside a casino in Laughlin, Nev., a gambling town 100 miles from Las Vegas on the Nevada-Arizona line.

He was charged Thursday in Salt Lake City with a federal count of conveying threats while talking to tellers last month at Zions First National Bank in St. George, Utah.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Bearnson said Murray was in federal custody in Nevada and likely will get a court date there Monday. Neither Bearnson nor the Secret Service would discuss whether Murray was considered to be a serious threat.

Charging documents say Murray, originally from Rexford, N.Y., is the registered owner of eight guns.

He was described by his father and former neighbors in Rexford as troubled but not dangerous, known for strolling down a street wearing a cape while talking to himself.

"He's sick. He's been sick for about 10 years," Michael Murray, his father, told the Times Union of Albany, N.Y.

In charging documents filed Thursday, the Secret Service said Daniel Murray made bizarre statements while opening _ and then closing within two weeks _ an $85,000 savings account.

First, he demanded to know if Zions First National Bank was solvent, saying, "I'm sure if citizens happen to lose their money, they will rise up and we could see killing and deaths," bank tellers told a Secret Service agent.

On May 27, as a teller counted out bills no larger than $50, Murray delivered a rambling discourse on the probability of economic and social disorder, ending with "We are on a mission to kill the president of the United States," a bank employee told the Secret Service.

The next day, Murray withdrew the remaining $72,000 and closed his account.

In Washington, Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said Murray offered no resistance when he was arrested at 7 p.m. Friday on a warrant in the parking lot of the Riverside Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nev. Wiley wouldn't offer any further details. It wasn't clear if Murray had a lawyer.

___

Associated Press writer Kathleen Hennessey in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Comments

[johnbatist]

ooh more boogie men.

[BruceHNV]

How divided is the country?

Obama was elected by one of the widest popular margins in history.

He has been the subject of more death threats after 6 months in office than any president ever, in the space of one or two whole terms.

[Sparhawk]

Sadly, so was Kennedy. Violence is not the answer no what what party you subscribe to. As for as the 'insanity defense'...I'm not buying it. If he was "sick", how did he own legal guns? Someone didn't do their job.

[judiNJ]

It really seems that the loonies are all right wing. I really don't remember any lefties calling for Bush like this. Lots of anger, but not this kind, more like disgust.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

Obama is Black and some of the GOP do not think a Black man should be president.

[StillIRise]

It's racism, pure and simple, and it's taken on a life of its own. It knows no boundaries, and once unleashed, it's rampant.

Americans have finally been forced to see our country for what it is, to see what some of us have always seen and what others of us have always refused to see. For some Americans, love for country and patriotism and American values are all wrapped up in their ideal of racial superiority. When that sense of superiority is threatened, the racism that was heretofore hidden and disguised or suppressed or restrained, explodes to the surface and becomes manifest in the threats against the life of the one man who embodies their greatest fear ... which is a fear of losing their own sense of self!

If this black man can be elected to the highest office in our land, can be respected and even loved as the leader of our nation and the free world, can exude the integrity and strength of character that America and the world thirsts for and is not intimidated by the usual roadblocks that are generally thrown into the path of black men who step out of their place - then everything the racists have believed all of their lives about themselves is a lie!

So for their own self-preservation, they have to fight the reality that exposes their deluded self image, and if they can beat it down then, for some of them, their only option is to kill it!

[gascelebrations]

PALIN / MURRAY '12 !!!!!

[PeaceIsMyName]

I hope you're not serious. I can't tell... LOL

[abbyrose]

sad. this man is clearly mentally ill....

[kissMYfish]

His glasses are like Palins???

[hotseat]

Yeah, but her tinfoil hat and cape are cuter.

[gmt066]

We? We? Does this qualify for enahanced interrogation techniques to find out who else is involved in this act of ter.ror.ism?

Just asking..... (sarcasm folks)

[festry548]

What I want to know is, where did a freak like that get that kind of money?

[sheaintsayin]

Agree

[Montana 123]

That's what I would like to know.

[BruceHNV]

A car accident, no doubt.

[kissMYfish]

We do need to know where the cash came from.

[sarimn00]

And why he said "we."

[barackobama4prez]

sick or not, i don't want him on the streets trying to take out our Prez. Lock up the nutjobs...get them help if they need it, but get them off the streets!

[craphappens]

Agree, and the crazy right wing nuts need to shut up, too.

[Gretel1or2]

He's been mentally ill for 10 years yet there are eight firearms registered in his name???

[BruceHNV]

"been sick for 10 years" says a relative. When, if ever, was he diagnosed by a professional?

When did he get the firearms? I've had most of mine for more than 10 years.

[Freesia2]

Yeah. I wondered about that too. I am fine with gun ownership, but dadburn it is possible to allow for that and have common sense at the same time. People on the streets have the right to feel safe and it's no less a right than the right to gun ownership.

At any rate, thank goodness they caught him. What worries me though is that for every Daniel James Murray in custody, there is another out there who's not. And FOX and their friends keep drumming up the hate to feed them over their televisions as they sit there polishing their guns.

Makes me queasy.

[Ponderus]

Wal-Mart.

[wadenelson1]

Locking the mentally ill up in asylums wasn't the answer.

Neither was kicking them out into society with little or no support system.

I know nobody wants a nanny state, but taking care of the mentally ill is what Jesus would have us do.

We need to do better.

[sheaintsayin]

Indeed.

[dclobbyist]

It's interesting that when people, mostly leftwingnuts talked about k.il.li.ng Bush, there was not a peep. But the moment some loon rants about doing the same to the current occupant of the WH, he's arrested.

[barackobama4prez]

I'm so glad for this double standard!

[DMHendrix]

pitiful.

[PCdoc]

you can't be serious. The Secret Service takes any (you do understand the word "any" don't you) threat against the President seriously, no matter what his party

[roshni]

Do you want this guy wandering the streets?

[Jazzman323]

Throughout time there have been nuts like this, who threaten Bush and every other president. Not good but nothing new here.

[AngryCitizen]

what a nutbag, must be the next rethuglican candidate for President.

[steve12]

No, he is sick. He needs care, not imprisonment. I have little doubt, however, that his illness was probably exacerbated by the extreme rhetoric of the far right. James Murray deserves our pity. The true nutbags are the Rushes, Newts, and Hannitys of the world; not this poor wretch.

[KevinHallShow]

Thankfully they were able to arrest this sick individual. Maybe now the media will learn to be more responsible in how it reports stories so as not to incite lunatics such as this person. Tell the truth and provide facts instead of these silly talking points and nonsensical arguments that overwhelm the airwaves today.

http://kevinhallshow.com/?p=142

[sarimn00]

I wouldn't hold my breath.

[craphappens]

Well, now then, one down, but how many more are out there being goaded on by the rantings and hatred of the right wing nuts?

[BackFromParadise]

He isn't a terrorist because he's white. /end

no more comments needed