Indian-origin teen accused of ramming U-Haul truck into barriers near White House praised Hitler
wanted to kill US President Joe Biden
Washington, May 24: A 19-year-old Indian-origin man accused of deliberately crashing a rented truck into a White House barrier has praised Adolf Hitler to investigators and said that he aimed to "kill" President Joe Biden if necessary to seize power, media reports said on Wednesday.
Sai Varshith Kandula, of Chesterfield, Missouri, rented the U-Haul truck on Monday night immediately after flying from St. Louis to Dulles International Airport on a one-way ticket, a Secret Service agent said in a statement of facts filed in federal district court in Washington D.C., NBC News reported.
US Park Police arrested Kandula after he crashed the rented truck into the security barriers on the north side of Lafayette Park shortly before 10 pm on Monday, sending multiple pedestrians running from the scene.
The crash was a good distance from the White House gates, but the incident prompted road and sidewalk closures, and the nearby Hay-Adams hotel had to be evacuated. No one was injured in the crash.
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 United States Park Police officers took him into custody, according to the document.
Kandula told authorities he had been planning the attack for six months and detailed the plans in a "green book," the document says.
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.
Kandula, in handcuffs and wearing a t-shirt and shorts, appeared in DC Superior Court Tuesday afternoon, US Park Police told CNN, and was held in custody without bail.
When Secret Service agents asked Kandula about a flag with a swastika 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.
In the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield, where Kandula lives, FBI agents were seen entering and leaving his home Tuesday and acquaintances struggled to link the alleged attack with the "chill" teen they know.
Police in Chesterfield have no records of any interaction with Kandula or calls for service to the family home, Capt Daniel Dunn, Commander for the City of Chesterfield's Bureau of Criminal Investigations, said.
Dunn said that 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."
A friend of Kandula told the 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 Missouri college student, rejected the notion Kandula was a white supremacist or a neo-Nazi.
Sharma spent years living in the same Chesterfield apartment complex as Kandula and his family.
Speaking about those discussing his former friend on Twitter, Sharma said they had "never even met him."
In addition to the Nazi flag, investigators recovered duct tape, a backpack and a notebook filled with writing from inside the vehicle, FOX 5 DC reported.
Investigators are probing whether mental health played a role.
Security has been stepped up at the White House and other federal buildings in Washington DC following a string of incidents in recent years.
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Jharkhand horror: Man kills live-in partner, chops body into 40 pieces
Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.
The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.
Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.
"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.
Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.
“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.
Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.
"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.
The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.
Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.
"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.
The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.
Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.
