White House shooting suspect to be charged with assassination attempt

A young man accused of firing an assault rifle near the White House will be charged with attempting to assassinate the president of the United States or a member of his staff, CNN reported.

Authorities said in a complained filed in federal court that the man, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, told friends he believed President Obama was “the Antichrist” and that he “needed to kill him," The New York Times reported. He also is “convinced the federal government is conspiring against him.”

Ortega, 21, appeared in federal court Thursday in Pittsburgh, USA Today reported.

Ortega, of Idaho Falls, is suspected of firing a semiautomatic assault rifle Friday near the White House. Authorities said they found what they claim is Ortega's abandoned car near the shooting incident, and inside it was a semiautomatic weapon. They then began looking for Ortega.

More from GlobalPost: Secret Service finds bullet fired into White House

Authorities in Pennsylvania found Ortega Wednesday at a hotel near Indiana, Penn. 

Yesterday, the Secret Serve found a bullet fired into a White House window. The bullet smashed the exterior glass but was stopped from entering the interior by special anti-ballistic glass, the Associated Press reported.

A second round of ammunition was found outside the White House.

The New York Daily News reported that Ortega has prior arrests in three different states for drug crimes and assaulting a cop. Citing unnamed sources, it also stated that Ortega "had  a beef of some kind with President Obama." That has not been independently verified.

President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were not in the White House at the time of the shooting.