Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, September 27, 2018.
Tom Williams | Pool | Reuters
A California man armed with a handgun and ammuntion, a knife, pepper spray and burglary tools was arrested early Wednesday morning near the Maryland home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, law enforcement authorities said.
The man, Nicholas John Roske, told police he was there to kill Kavanaugh, authorities said.
Roske, 26, also said that he was upset over the likelihood of the Supreme Court soon overturning the constitutional right to abortion, and the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, according to authorities.
“Roske stated that he began thinking about how to give his life a purpose and decided that he would kill the Supreme Court Justice after finding the Justice’s Montgomery County address on the Internet,” FBI Special Agent Ian Montijo wrote in an affidavit.
“Roske further indicated that he had purchased [a] Glock pistol and other items for the purpose of breaking into the Justice’s residence and killing the Justice as well as himself,” the agent wrote.
Roske is being charged with one count of attempted murder of a Supreme Court justice. He is due to appear in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Wednesday afternoon.
He had arrived in a taxi Wednesday morning at just after 1:30 a.m., near Kavanaugh’s home in Chevy Chase, a suburb just outside of Washington, D.C.
Court records say he spotted two deputy U.S. Marshal standing outside of Kavanaugh’s house, and then walked down the street.
He then called 911 and told a dispatcher that he was having suicidal thoughts, according to those records. The Simi Valley resident told the 911 operator that he had a gun in his suitcase.
“He also told the call taker he came from California to kill a specific United States Supreme Court Justice,” the FBI agent wrote in his affidavit.
Authorities said Roske was apprehended a block away from the residence by members of the U.S. Marshals Service and the Montgomery County Police Department, who took him into custody without incident.
When police searched his suitcase and backpack, they found a Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol with two magazines and ammunition, a knife, a tactical chest risk, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, a screwdriver, nail punch, a crowbar, pistol light and duct tape, according to court documents.
Roske was taken to a Montgomery County police station after being arrested.
“After being taken to the precinct and advised of his constitutional rights, Roske agreed to speak with the authorities and signed a written waiver to that effect,” the affidavit said.
He then told a detective that “he was upset about the leak of a recent Supreme Court draft decision regarding the right to abortion as well as the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas,” according to the affidavit.
Roske “indicated that he believed the Justice that he intended to kill would side with Second Amendment decisions that would loosen gun control laws,” the affidavit said.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters, “This kind of behavior is obviously behavior that we will not tolerate.”
“Threats of violence and actual violence against the justices of course strike at the heart of our democracy, and we will do everything we can to prevent them and hold the people who do them accountable for that reason,” Garland said.
The Supreme Court issued a statement on the arrest, which said, “The man was armed and made threats against Justice Kavanaugh.”
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in a statement lauded the response by marshals and police, saying they acted “quickly to apprehend the suspect and prevent him from causing any harm.”
Kavanaugh’s home, like those of other conservative Supreme Court justices, was the site of protests last month after the leak of a majority draft opinion that would overturn the constitutional right to abortion. That draft was written by Justice Samuel Alito, another conservative.
Police stand outside the home of U.S. Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh as abortion-rights advocates protest on May 11, 2022 in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
The Supreme Court is expected in the next several weeks to issue a final decision on a Mississippi abortion law that was the subject of the draft opinion.
Wednesday’s incident occurred hours before the court released a ruling on a case unrelated to abortion.
Security has been tightened at all nine of the justices’ homes since last month, after the unprecedented leak of the draft.
The Department of Justice said in mid-May that the Marshals Service is providing “around-the-clock security” at the homes of all nine justices.
A spokesman for the Marshals Service told CNBC on Wednesday that security measures are still in place at the justices’ homes.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin warning of the “continued heightened threat environment across the United States.”
The bulletin said that in the coming months DHS “expects the threat environment to become more dynamic as several high-profile events could be exploited to justify acts of violence against a range of possible targets.”
Hogan, in his statement, said that he and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin “will continue to partner with both federal and local law enforcement officials to help ensure these residential areas” where Supreme Court justices live “are secure.”
“I call on leaders in both parties in Washington to strongly condemn these actions in no uncertain terms,” Hogan said.
“It is vital to our constitutional system that the justices be able to carry out their duties without fear of violence against them and their families.”
