HAGERSTOWN, Md. — A Kansas man who traveled to Hagerstown faces federal charges for making terrorist-like threats against the President of the United States.
Scott Merryman, 37, of Independence, Kan. is being held under a federal warrant in the Washington County Detention Center in Hagerstown. He is awaiting a court appearance set for Monday, DFC Betts, a spokesperson, told WUSA9.
A criminal complaint seeking his arrest on the federal charges was filed Friday. The complaint says Merryman made several posts Tuesday through Thursday on social media with threatening rhetoric toward President Joe Biden. Over the course of three days he made threats against Biden and secret servant agents.
Merryman made several Facebook posts detailing "a God led journey."
"When I get to DC I'm jumping a fence, I'll see Biden," he wrote on Facebook. "I'll slay the Anti-Christ. Don't worry people.... He isn't human... he's a demon also and that will be bullet one down."
Court documents say Merryman phoned police in Kansas on Tuesday and told them that he was going to the nation's capital to see the president.
In a telephone interview with a U.S. Secret Service agent on Wednesday, Merryman said that God told him to go to Washington to cut off "the head of the serpent in the heart of the nation," the filing states.
Merryman denied in the interview that Biden was the serpent, though in a Facebook post he identified the president as the "AntiChrist" and said "he will suffer a fatal head wound." Merryman added, "I'll deal that blow in Christ's name."
The criminal complaint says another Secret Service agent located Merryman at the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Hagerstown. That agent searched Merryman and found three rounds of ammunition and a spotting scope, but no gun or other weapons. Merryman told the agent "God told him" to bring the ammunition.
Court documents say Merryman called the U.S. Secret Service officer he spoke to on the phone earlier on Wednesday and told him the agent at Cracker Barrel “had sent for him and that they had given him the answer.” The agent on the phone told Merryman, according to filings, that the agents asked him "not to take the bullets to the White House."
Merryman acknowledged on the phone he was making threats toward the agent and told him "I'm coming for you," and telling him "I have a bullet with your name on it," the filing says.
On Thursday, Merryman called the White House switch board and threatened Biden, the document says. Merryman told the switch board he was "coming to the White House, and was going to cut off the head of the snake/anti-Christ," the filings say. The White House operator then contacted the Secret Service.
An agent called Merryman, and the filings say Merryman continued making threats.
"I’m coming with three bullets no guns. I am now coming by myself," Merryman is quoted saying in the documents. “You know where I’m staying bitch! I’m in Hagerstown, Maryland at the (unintelligible).”
The criminal complaint calling for his arrest on the federal charges was filed Friday.
Charges filed by the state of Maryland for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct were dropped, according to DFC Betts.
