McVey-McVeigh

Police in Asheville, N.C., arrested an Ohio man on Sunday, April 25, 2010, after authorities spotted him with a handgun in an airport parking lot as President Barack Obama's plane was departing the state after he and his family vacationed there over the weekend. Joseph McVey, 23, was charged with going armed in terror of the public, a misdemeanor. Security was heightened because of Obama's visit. McVey was nowhere near Air Force One, and why he was in the area with a gun was unclear.

North Carolina police have charged the man who allegedly impersonated a police officer at Asheville airport as US President Barack Obama departed on Air Force One. Ohio man Joseph McVey, 23, was allegedly armed when he drove a car made to look like a police vehicle with working lights and sirens to the airport at about 2pm (local time).

Buncombe County jail officer Donna Player told CNN that McVey was being held on a charge of going armed to the terror of the public and his bail was set at US$100,000. Airport police Capt Kevan Smith emphasised that the president was never in any danger and said additional charges were pending. Mr. Obama left Asheville aboard Air Force One about 1:50pm after his meeting with the Rev Billy Graham. From there he flew to Beckley, West Virginia, where he delivered the eulogy at a public memorial service for the 29 workers killed in a mine explosion on April 5. Air Force One was waiting on the runway at Asheville Regional while Mr. Obama met with Mr Graham.

Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was a United States Army veteran and former security guard who was convicted of detonating a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people, including 19 children under the age of six. It is referred to as the Oklahoma City bombing. McVeigh, a militia movement sympathizer, sought revenge against the federal government for the Waco Siege which had ended in the deaths of 76 people exactly two years earlier.