CHICAGO (Reuters) – A fourth man was arrested on a terrorism-related charge ahead of the NATO summit that gets underway here on Sunday, adding to event security concerns after the arrests of three others who police said considered targeting U.S. President Barack Obama’s re-election headquarters.
Chicago-resident Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, was arrested Thursday and charged with one count of terrorism/false threat, Chicago Police Department spokesman Mike Sullivan said on Sunday. He remains in custody and has a bond hearing later on Sunday.
Senakiewicz’s arrest came a day after police arrested three out-of-state men in a late-night raid. According to charging documents released on Saturday, those three were caught in the act of making Molotov cocktails, which they had discussed using against the Obama campaign headquarters, as well as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home, several area financial institutions and four police stations.
Asked if Senakiewicz’s arrest was related to the earlier arrests, CPD’s Sullivan said: “That’s being investigated.”
The three men charged previously were listed as Brian Church, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Jared Chase, 27, of Keene, New Hampshire, and Brent Betterly, 24, from Massachusetts. Each is being held on $1.5 million bail.
The Chicago Police Department said those men, described as self-proclaimed anarchists and members of the “Black Bloc” movement that disrupted international gatherings in the past, were charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing material support for terrorism, and possession of an explosive incendiary device.
A lawyer for the three, Michael Deutsch, said undercover police officers had entrapped them by infiltrating the group and encouraging the bomb-making effort. Their supporters say the men had come to protest the NATO summit peacefully and that the police had confused beer-making equipment with explosives.
Word of the latest arrest comes as thousands of demonstrators are expected to march through Chicago Sunday as Obama hosts the heads of state of the NATO alliance for its two-day annual meeting. So far, two days of protests that began on Friday have been relatively peaceful, with few arrests.
Thousands of security personnel have been deployed to monitor them.
(Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Jackie Frank)
