A Massachusetts inmate has been charged with threatening to kill President Obama, according to federal authorities.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston says 31-year-old Alex Hernandez of Worcester and a current inmate at Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater was charged Monday with two counts of threatening to kill and inflict bodily harm on the President of the United States.
Agents learned that Hernandez told another inmate that he wanted "to become a mujahedeen" because he was upset about how "his people were being treated" and that he'd get weapons to kill Obama after he was released in a lone-wolf style attack, according to the Justice Department.
Hernandez was then allegedly introduced to an undercover agent posing as an embassy contact through another inmate who was cooperating with the investigation.
Officials say he wrote two letters to the supposed embassy contact.
In the second letter, he allegedly wrote, "I am writing to you now to ask that you come see me. I am a brother in faith, a martyr; and as a martyr I wish to fulfill Allah's wishes and not to live among infidels. The mujahedeen movement is hard but pure. I need your help and I hope to meet you in prison."
When the undercover agent met with Hernandez in prison, Hernandez allegedly expressed a desire to attack "the house with the big people there," implying the White House.
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He also allegedly expressed wanting to learn how to shoot "like a sniper" and that he was studying bomb making.
Searches of Hernandez's cell also allegedly turned up several items that drew red flags, including a document listing former U.S. presidents containing the handwritten note "kill" under presidents that had been assassinated, and images of terror attacks and terrorist organizations and leaders, including Osama bin Laden and ISIS members holding assault weapons and a flag.
It's unclear what Hernandez was in prison for originally, or if he has a lawyer.
