Asheville Regional Airport police arrested a 23-year-old Ohio man who was carrying a handgun and listening to police radio scanners near the runway around the time President Barack Obama’s flight was leaving Asheville, according to investigators.
Joseph Sean McVey, of Coshocton, in southeastern Ohio, pulled his vehicle in front of a gate in the rental car parking lot as Air Force One was taxiing on the runway just before 2 p.m., according to a case summary filed by police.
McVey has been charged with going armed to the terror of the public, a misdemeanor offense. He is being held at the Buncombe County Detention Center on $100,000 secured bond.
McVey was also very interested in the activities of law enforcement:
His car was equipped with clear LED law enforcement-style strobe lights in the front and rear dash, Smith said. The car also had a mounted digital camera in the front window, four large antennas on the trunk lid, and under the steering wheel was a working siren box.
When McVey got out of the car, he was listening to a handheld scanner and radio that had a remote earpiece, Smith said. Police said he was monitoring local agencies and had formulas for rifle scopes on a note in his cup holder. Police did not immediately elaborate on what the formulas might mean.
B – Beckley, WV.
C – Ashville, NC
We don’t really know if there is any connection yet, or if McVey was even planning on harming the President, but all the pieces to this puzzle seem to fall into that situation.
To the left is a map of that route I quickly put together this morning (click for larger view). From Coshocton to Beckley is about 230 miles and takes about 3 1/2 hours to drive. From Beckley to Ashville is another 230 miles and again would take about 3 1/2 hours to drive.
McVey had a pretty straight shot to hit the President’s route. Again, I don’t know if this is what he was doing, but just was throwing together a theory. That is all it is.
Something else that is interesting is the area that McVey is from. Coshocton is a very, very red part of Ohio, going McCain +8 in 2008. Also the main industry of Coshocton is coal mining. Again, it is all speculation, but there are some interesting connections that can be made between McVey and his hometown and the President’s itinerary for the day.
This is one story I will be monitoring closely to see what happens with it. Given the items found in McVey’s possession when he was caught at the airport, it certainly seems like it could be another case of some crazy wanting to harm the President.
Adding…And so people don’t get confused, this guy’s name is McVey. It sounds the same, but is spelled differently from Timothy McVeigh, who happens to have family in Southwestern Ohio, just a few miles from me.
UPDATE:
Here’s McVey’s website and Twitter feed. Honestly nothing stands out. He’s into Ham radio and music. He even has his own recording studio and seems really interested in jazz. Of course we never know what makes people snap, if that is what really happened. It could all turn out to be that he just made a very stupid mistake. If that’s the case he still needs to be charged. Given the atmosphere of this country, all these cases must be taken very seriously.