Nicholas John Roske traveled from California and ended up in front of the Maryland home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday early morning. He was armed with a Glock 17 pistol and a tactical knife. He had pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, crow bar and duct tape in his knapsack.

His plan was to break into the Justice’s house, kill Kavanaugh and kill himself. 

Upon exiting a taxi in front of Kavanaugh’s house, Roske apparently had second thoughts. He walked down the street and called 911. He told the dispatcher he was having suicidal thoughts, was armed and admitted he had come to California to kill a US Supreme Court justice. 

Mr. Roske was taken into custody at around 1 AM.

When questioned, Mr. Roske admitted that he was upset about the recent elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas and Kavanaugh’s position on gun control. He was concerned that Kavanaugh would vote to loosen gun restrictions. He also complained about Kavanaugh’s views on abortion, and was disturbed over the leak of Justice Alito’s draft opinion that showed that the court was leaning toward overturning Roe v. Wade, the ruling that protects women’s abortion rights. 

“Roske stated that he began thinking about how to give his life a purpose and decided that he would kill the Supreme Court Justice [Kavanaugh] after finding the Justice’s Montgomery County address on the Internet,” FBI Special Agent Ian Montijo wrote in his affidavit.

Roske is charged with attempted murder of a US judge, which has a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. 

Protests have been taking place all across the US because of the abortion debate and there have been increased threats against the Supreme Court justices. After the leaked opinion draft, the Department of Homeland Security issued a memo alerting law enforcement about the increased violence risk against the court.