Barack Obama assassination plot in Denver
The Barack Obama assassination plot in Denver refers to an alleged plot by Shawn Robert Adolf, Tharin Robert Gartrell and Nathan Dwaine Johnson to assassinate Barack Obama, then the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nominee. The trio allegedly planned to shoot Senator Obama with a high-powered rifle during the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

The alleged motive for the attempted assassination was a white supremacist belief that an African American should not be elected President of the United States. Gartrell was arrested August 24, 2008, and found to be in possession of rifles and other weaponry; Adolf and Johnson were arrested shortly thereafter. In a televised interview after his arrest, Johnson identified Adolf as the man who allegedly hatched the assassination plot and planned to be the shooter.

Although their suspected white supremacist affiliations led federal authorities to investigate possible ties to a larger group, authorities later downplayed the trio as drug addicts who had little chance of carrying out the plot. The three men were charged with drug and weapons charges, but did not face federal charges of threatening a presidential candidate.
Q76
Barack Obama
PER
Q29552
Democratic Party
Concept
Q2034682
Democratic National Convention
EVE
Q16554
Denver, Colorado
LOC
Q698752
white supremacist
Concept
Q4858112
Barack Obama assassination plot in Denver
Concept
2008-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2008
DATE
2008-08-24T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
August 24, 2008
DATE
target
location
member of political party