A 19-year-old Indian-origin teen accused of deliberately crashing a rented U-Haul truck into a White House barrier told authorities that he wanted to get inside the mansion to “seize power” and “kill” US President Joe Biden.
According to The Washington Times, US Park Police arrested Indian-origin teen Sai Varshith Kandula after he crashed the truck into the White House security barriers on the north side of Lafayette Park shortly before 10 p.m. on Monday, sending multiple pedestrians fleeing the scene in a quest to kill Biden.
The crash occurred some distance from the White House gates, but it resulted in road and pavement closures, as well as the evacuation of the nearby Hay-Adams hotel. The crash caused no injuries.
Kandula, of Chesterfield, Missouri, rented the truck on Monday night after flying from St. Louis to Dulles International Airport on a one-way ticket, according to a Secret Service agent in a statement of facts filed in federal district court in Washington DC, according to NBC News.
According to the document, he drove the vehicle onto a sidewalk outside the White House and into a metal barrier just north of the White House.
According to the document, Kandula put the truck in reverse and crashed into the barrier a second time before being apprehended by US Park Police officers.
Kandula told authorities that he had been planning the attack for six months and had detailed his plans in a “green book,” according to the document.
He “stated his goal was to ‘get into the White House, seize power, and be put in charge of the nation,'” the document states.
“When agents asked how he would seize power, Kandula stated he would ‘kill the President if that’s what I have to do and would hurt anyone that would stand in my way.'” The document was included with a criminal complaint charging Kandula with depredation of property of the United States over USD 1,000, the NBC News report said.
When Secret Service agents asked Kandula about a flag with a Hakenkreuz symbol he removed from a backpack, he allegedly said he’d bought it online because Nazis “have a great history,” according to the court document.
He allegedly said he “admires their ‘authoritarian nature, Eugenics, and their one world order,'” according to the document. Kandula identified Hitler as a “strong leader” he admires, the report said.
FBI agents were seen entering and leaving Kandula’s home in the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield on Tuesday, and acquaintances struggled to connect the alleged attack with the “chill” teen they know.
Chesterfield police have no records of any interactions with Kandula or call to the family home, according to Capt Daniel Dunn, Commander of the City of Chesterfield’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations.
According to Dunn, federal agents are in charge of the investigation.
Errion Barfield, who was on the Marquette High School track team with Kandula, remembered him as quiet and unassuming.
“He was nice and chill,” Barfield said in a Facebook message to NBC News. “Ain’t ever expected him to do something like that.” Kandula was a member of the sizable South Asian population of Chesterfield, a middle-class suburb about 32 kilometres west of St. Louis.
Pranav Nagila, who was a year ahead of Kandula, said he couldn’t make sense of his one-time schoolmate possibly having a Nazi flag in his possession.
“I didn’t see him as off-putting or anything like that,” said Nagila, who just finished his sophomore year at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “He just seemed like a chill person.” Kandula appeared in Washington DC Superior Court on Tuesday and is expected to make an initial appearance in federal court Wednesday afternoon.
A friend of Kandula told New York Post newspaper that he’s worried about his state of mind.
The former classmate, who attended school with Kandula said, “I feel like something … either has gone badly internally inside him or maybe between the family.” Kandula was “the quiet kid” who enjoyed tennis, according to Aniket Sharma.
“He was never open to talking. And anytime I tried, he, it was just only small talk – never really anything deep. I always thought he was like a quiet, shy kid,” Sharma said.
Sharma, now a college student in Missouri, denied Kandula was a white supremacist or a neo-Nazi.
Sharma lived in the same Chesterfield apartment complex as Kandula and his family for many years.
Sharma stated that those discussing his former friend on Twitter had “never even met him.” In addition to the Nazi flag, FOX 5 DC reported that investigators recovered duct tape, a backpack, and a notebook filled with writing from inside the vehicle.
Investigators are looking into whether mental health issues played a role.
Also read: Biden jokes about his age at White House Correspondents’ Dinner
