Man accused of threat against Obama is held

SALT LAKE CITY - Authorities have arrested a man who allegedly told bank tellers while cleaning out his savings account in Utah that he was on a mission to kill President Obama, a federal prosecutor said yesterday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Bearnson said Daniel James Murray was arrested in Laughlin, Nev., by the U.S. Secret Service and Las Vegas metropolitan police.

Murray, 36, was charged Thursday with conveying threats while talking to tellers last month at Zions First National Bank in St. George, Utah.

Bearnson said Murray was arrested Friday and was in federal custody in Nevada. She said he likely would get a court date there tomorrow.

Murray is originally from Rexford, N.Y.

He was described by his father and former neighbors in Rexford as troubled but not dangerous, known for strolling down a street wearing a cape while talking to himself.

"He's sick. He's been sick for about 10 years," Michael Murray, his father, told the Times Union of Albany, N.Y.

In charging documents filed Thursday, the Secret Service said Daniel Murray made bizarre statements while opening - and then closing within weeks - an $85,000 savings account.

First, he demanded to know whether Zions First National Bank was solvent, saying, "I'm sure if citizens happen to lose their money, they will rise up, and we could see killing and deaths," bank tellers told a Secret Service agent.

On May 27, as a teller counted out bills no larger than $50, Murray delivered a rambling discourse on the probability of economic and social disorder, ending with "We are on a mission to kill the president of the United States," a bank employee told the Secret Service.