News Reporter
On Oct. 30, the United States Secret Service Denver Field Office received a police report from the Westminster Police Department regarding CMU online student Mitchell Kusick. Kusick took steps toward shooting children at Standley Lake High School and made statements of desiring to kill people on Halloween and assassinating the President.
Law enforcement authorities charged Kusick in Jefferson County with plotting to kill the President of the United States.
CMU promptly made a statement upon learning of Kusick’s arrest.
“The University has taken appropriate action to maintain the safety of our students, faculty and staff on all our campuses,” Dana Nunn said in a statement issued by CMU.
Mitchell Kusick is a CMU student taking online classes, but Dana Nunn, Director of Media Relations, stated that he is not enrolled in the nursing program.
“Kusick qualified for an academic scholarship that requires a high school grade point average of at least 3.75 and an ACT score of 29 or higher,” Nunn said in the statement.
According to a federal criminal complaint, the Secret Service investigated Kusick after receiving tips from the Broomfield Police Department and the Westminster Police Department. Kusick was then taken to Lutheran Hospital for a 72-hour mental health hold. He allegedly stated that he had been planning on killing people for approximately five or six years, according to the federal criminal complaint. Kusick kept track of Obama’s visits to Denver and also made statements about a desire to shoot people on Halloween.
Kusick has been in counseling since the age of eight or nine, and is currently prescribed Prozac. According to the federal criminal complaint, Kusick said “some people just want to watch the world burn down, and I’m one of them.”
Kusick read books on snipers, assassinations and the military, and had followed the President’s schedule on the White House website. He had kept track of President Obama’s visits to the Denver Metro Area, because he wanted to go down in history as the guy who killed Obama, according to the federal criminal complaint.
Kusick allegedly stole a firearm from his aunt and uncle’s home, and attempted to purchase ammunition from WalMart, but WalMart would not sell it to him.
“Kusick stated he has had homicidal thoughts for several years. He admitted to fantasizing about killing people,” the federal criminal complaint said.
“Title 18, United States Code, Section 871 outlaws a person from knowingly or willfully making a threat to take the life of, or inflict bodily harm on the President of the United States,” said the Secret Service agent who issued the federal criminal complaint.
The penalty for plotting to assassinate the president is up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Kusick was scheduled to appear in federal court on Monday. The hearing was originally scheduled for Friday, Nov. 16. Now both a detention hearing and preliminary hearing was held on Monday in Denver.
lstroman@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
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