A week ago Tuesday, 77 year old Michael Stephen Bowden was getting a routine physical exam at a VA clinic in Spartanburg, South Carolina when he told the attending VA nurse he would “like to shoot the President [and] then myself.” This revelation earned Bowden an impromptu psych evaluation in which he confided further that he “was thinking of traveling to Washington, DC, to shoot the President (Obama) because he is not doing enough to help African Americans.”
That triggered a visit from the Secret Service to Bowden’s home where he lives with his wife and grown son. But things didn’t go as they normally do when the suspect recants his statement or explains that there was some misunderstanding. Bowden waived his rights and went on to make a sworn statement in which he said that “if I had the opportunity to put (President) Obama against the wall and shoot him, I would. I would kill, if possible, the president for what he has done to this country.”
Agents’ concerns were heightened when a search of Bowden’s home revealed a small armory of weapons, including 3 loaded semi-automatic handguns and a semi-automatic rifle in the immediate vicinity of Bowden’s bed.
Bowden was arrested on November 18th and charged with threatening to take the life of, kidnap or inflict bodily harm on the President of the United States. A judge has ordered a full psychiatric evaluation.
