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11 Hurt on Thames Boat : Glenn Hit by Man Seized Earlier Near Quayle

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<i> From Associated Press</i>

A man who slugged Sen. John Glenn on Wednesday after muttering, “The earthquakes are starting,” had been detained by police the day before after an incident involving Vice President Dan Quayle, officials said.

Michael Breen, who was arrested after hitting Glenn in the jaw at a tree-planting ceremony, was the same man detained for two hours Tuesday after breaking through a police line and trying to approach Quayle’s motorcade, U.S. Capitol police said.

Breen, 31, of Washington, tried to pass a letter to personnel in Quayle’s motorcade but was stopped before he got close to the vice president’s car, a Capitol Police spokesman said. Breen was not arrested Tuesday because he did not commit a crime, the spokesman said.

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After hitting Glenn at a ceremony at the Smithsonian Institution, Breen was charged with assaulting a member of Congress, which is a felony, a District of Columbia police spokesman said. Breen’s arraignment was set for today in U.S. District Court, he said.

A Glenn aide said that the senator’s jaw was sore but he did not see a doctor and kept to his schedule.

Glenn’s spokeswoman, Rebecca Bell, said the Ohio Democrat was talking to a television reporter when a man who had watched Glenn help plant a tree started muttering: “The earthquakes are starting, the earthquakes are starting.”

The man then “comes up and socks” Glenn on the jaw, she said. The senator, a former astronaut and Marine, grabbed the man and called for Smithsonian guards.

Gary Nurenberg, the TV reporter, said Glenn rubbed his jaw and said: “I haven’t been hit like that in 30 years.” Nurenberg, a correspondent with Gillett News Bureau, said “the senator at 68 had better reflexes than anybody else there.”

Nurenberg said the man told him that last week’s California earthquake was a harbinger of imminent catastrophe in which two-thirds of the world’s population would be wiped out.

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