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Washington state man arrested for alleged threats to President Obama

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SEATTLE -- A Washington state man is scheduled to appear Wednesday in federal court here after being taken into custody for allegedly threatening President Obama via an email to the FBI, authorities said.

The man, identified as Anton Caluori, 31, was arrested following a brief struggle after the U.S. Secret Service and police from the city of Federal Way, south of Seattle, confronted him at his apartment door Tuesday afternoon.

He answered the door carrying a shotgun, according to police.

“During that initial contact, the gun was actually brandished so that it was on its way up, to be pointed,” Federal Way police spokeswoman Cathy Schrock told Seattle’s Q13 Fox news. She said the two officers were able to take control of the gun before anyone was harmed.

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Police also reportedly seized a second gun from an ankle holster Caluori was wearing.

Schrock told the Los Angeles Times that the suspect will make an initial appearance in federal court Wednesday afternoon on federal charges of assaulting a police officer and making threats against the president.

An unidentified witness told a local newspaper, the Federal Way Mirror, that the suspect was also wearing “an ammunition belt like Rambo.”

The suspect’s mother, who identified herself as Renee, told KOMO news that she was mystified about her son’s arrest.

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“He has a good education, he’s a good boy, but he’s done a stupid thing,” she said. “I don’t know a whole lot,” she added. “How would you feel if your son got arrested? Never got arrested, was in the military, has a college education. And I’m just a little bit upset and shocked.”

Authorities did not disclose the precise content of the email, apparently sent to a general FBI inbox, though Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary described it as “alarming.”

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