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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Plot to Kill President Obama Foiled in Missouri

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (CN) - A Missouri man who allegedly plotted to assassinate President Barack Obama with a high-powered rifle was arrested on Tuesday after a former Aryan Nation member informed police of his plan.

Cameron J. Stout, 24, was charged with making threats against the president on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Jefferson City.

Stout allegedly planned to kill President Obama within the next few weeks at Crown Center, a popular shopping mall in Kansas City, Mo., according to an affidavit filed by a United States Secret Service agent.

The informant first met Stout on March 12, when he and a friend were fishing near the informant's property and one of the men made a "rude hand gesture" as the informant drove by. After an initial confrontation, the informant invited Stout and the friend back to his home.

Over dinner and beer, the men allegedly discussed the informant's background as an Aryan Nation member and Stout's dislike of the president. After Stout's friend left, the conversation turned to Stout's assassination plan, the affidavit states.

The informant told Morgan County Deputy Kyle Towles that Stout was going to kill the president and that "he was serious." Stout needed to obtain a high-powered rifle, and the informant told Stout that he could put him in contact with a "high-ranking" member of the Aryan Nation organization to assist him in with getting the gun, according to the affidavit.

The informant's girlfriend recorded part of the discussion, which allegedly included Stout telling them, "That nigger shouldn't be president" while later claiming that "some of my best friends have been niggers."

Stout had allegedly identified locations from which to shoot at the White House and the church that Obama attends. He even researched the average wind speeds in the area, and discussed the type of ammunition he planned to use to carry out his plan, according to the affidavit.

"Stout drew two diagrams of the Washington, D.C. area and his shooting locations that he had identified through research on the Internet, which he gave to the confidential informant," the agent says in the affidavit. "One of the drawings showed a two-lane road identifying the presidential motorcade going 35 mph, and a building 100 yards from the road, from where Stout intended to take his shot."

The other diagram showed a stick figure of the president on the White House steps and a location approximately 600 yards away from which Stout could shoot the president.

"I got the shit mapped out, and I know that it can happen and I know that I can get away with it, but I know that it needs to be executed a certain way," Stout allegedly told the informant, according to the affidavit.

"'I don't wanna annihilate anybody, I wanna fuckin' change America. If you had contact with the people that you say you had contact with, I could kill the President of the United States, and then we storm Washington, and then we take over the country that our forefathers created,'" Stout told the informant, the agent says.

On March 14, the two met again and chatted about killing the president while they worked on four-wheel ATVs at the informant's shop. Stout, whose driver's license was revoked, currently uses an ATV as his mode of transportation and tried to persuade his new friend to accompany him to kill the president. "I'll drive," Stout told the informant, according to the affidavit. "I have it mapped out."

Stout told the informant that he "won't give up without a fight" and wanted to escape after the crime.

According to the affidavit, the informant met with Deputy Towles on March 15 and supplied him with Stout's diagrams. During the meeting, he told Towles that Stout had thought about shooting Obama when he visited Lawrence, Kan., in January but his plans "fell through."

On March, 17, Stout and the informant met with an undercover agent purporting to be an Aryan Nation leader. Stout allegedly asked the man to drive him to and from Kansas City and claimed he was a "competent shot up to 200 yards."

During the conversation, which was recorded and monitored by a Secret Service agent, the undercover agent asked Stout if he planned to shoot the president, to which Stout replied "Yes," and admitted that he had "done the research" on his home computer.

A preliminary and detention hearing is set for March 19 in Jefferson City.

Stout is being held by the U.S. Marshal.

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