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Arrest outside Obama’s hotel
By: Ben Smith
Jul 4, 2007 02:56 PM EST
Updated: July 4, 2007 05:20 PM EST
A man identified by police as Davit Zakaryan, 24, is confronted by
secret service in Ottumwa, IA Wednesday morning before his arrest.
OTTUMWA, IA — Iowa police arrested a man outside the hotel where
Barack Obama spent Tuesday night after the man was confronted by
Obama’s Secret Service detail.
Ottumwa Police Lieutenant Tom McAndrew said Davit Zakaryan, of
Cincinnati, Oh., was charged with illegally possessing a concealed
knife more than 8 inches long after he was arrested for failing to
produce a drivers license Wednesday morning.
"We have no reason to think he was a threat at all," Lt. McAndrew
said.
Zakaryan, 24, in a white undershirt, was pacing outside his small,
black car with Ohio license plates when Obama’s security detail
confronted near Obama’s motorcade in the parking lot of the Fairfield
Inn in Ottumwa. Soon, local police arrived, and began inspecting his
car and identity documents. The scene was visible to departing
reporters on the nearby press bus.
A person familiar with the encounter said the man, who appeared to
have been born outside the country, had given contradictory answers to
an agent about his presence outside the hotel, saying at one point
that he was planning to show up at a campaign event later in the day,
and also saying he’d seen the Obama campaign bus.
Obama’s campaign spokesman declined to comment on the incident, and
Secret Service Spokesman Darrin Blackford confirmed the arrest, but
referred questions to the Ottumwa police.
McAndrew said he didn’t think the Secret Service was continuing to
follow the case. He said Zakaryan is being held in Wapello County Jail
on $6,825 bond.
Obama was assigned a Secret Service detail earlier this year in
response to unspecified threats.
© 2007 Capitol News Company, LLC
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
