Nicholas Roske Arrested For Attempting To Murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh

California man Nicholas Roske has been charged with the attempted murder of a U.S. judge, following his Wednesday morning arrest after being found armed outside of Justice Brett Kavanaugh‘s house.

He traveled across the country to Kavanaugh’s Maryland address, which he had found online. Before making it all the way to Kavanaugh’s residence, Roske called the Montgomery County Emergency Communications Center and told the dispatcher that he was armed and was having suicidal thoughts. He added that he “came from California to kill a specific United State Supreme Court justice.” Officers found Roske while he was still on the call and took him into custody.

“Roske indicated that he believed the Justice that he intended to kill would side with Second Amendment decisions that would loosen gun control laws,” an FBI agent wrote. “Roske stated that he began thinking about how to give his life a purpose and decided that he would kill the Supreme Court Justice.”

In questioning, Roske revealed that he had planned to kill himself after murdering Kavanaugh. He said that he was upset about the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting and thought that Kavanaugh would vote to strengthen gun rights. He also named the seemingly imminent overturn of Roe v. Wade following the leaked opinion draft as a motive, according to the criminal complaint filed in Greenbelt, Maryland on Wednesday afternoon.

Roske was armed with a knife, pistol, pepper spray and a variety of tools including a hammer and screwdriver.

It is unclear if Justice Kavanaugh or his family were home at the time.

Supreme Court justices have faced increasing threats since the opinion draft was leaked early last month.

There have been calls on both sides of the aisle to up protection for Supreme Court justices.

“I call on leaders in both parties in Washington to strongly condemn these actions in no uncertain terms,” Maryland Gov. Lary Hogan (R) said in a statement. “It is vital to our constitutional system that the justices be able to carry out their duties without fear of violence against them and their families,” said Hogan.

Article by Rose Carter