Suspect May Have Threatened President : Simi Valley: Officials say the Oxnard man told others he was planning to kill George Bush at the Reagan library dedication.

An Oxnard man arrested Sunday with a stockpile of automatic weapons in his apartment may have been planning to assassinate President Bush at next month’s dedication of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Simi Valley, law-enforcement sources said Tuesday.

The suspect, Thomas Robert Ward, 45, told a police informant that he had recently scouted the hilly terrain surrounding the eastern Ventura County library site searching for a spot where he could fire a clean shot at Bush, officials said.

In addition to law-enforcement sources, a neighbor, Samantha Waltz, 24, told The Times that Ward recently confided to her and her husband that he was considering killing Bush.

“He said he wanted to assassinate President Bush,” she said.

Douglas J. Carver, a U.S. Secret Service agent in charge of coordinating security for the Nov. 4 library ceremonies, said Ward initially “denied ever making the (assassination) remarks.”

During interrogation Sunday at Ventura County Jail, however, Ward declared that if he did articulate threats against Bush, “he regretted making the statements,” Carver said.

Monday, Ward was turned over to the U.S. Marshal’s office and transported to Terminal Island from Ventura County Jail. He was booked for investigation of possession of unregistered firearms, arraigned before a U.S. magistrate in Los Angeles and held without bail.

Carver, in charge of the Secret Service’s Santa Barbara office, said Ward may have “shown some interest in harming President Bush” as long as four months ago. He did not elaborate except to say, “It is difficult to check” this information.

Under federal law, it is a felony to make verbal threats against a President. If convicted, the penalty is a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Carver said, “It is routine for the Secret Service to hear about threats against the President in the days or weeks before a well-publicized event.

“That happens simply because of the press coverage. There is such a buildup. It puts a thought in their minds.”

Carver said the Ward threat was “taken very seriously.”

Former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon and, possibly, Jimmy Carter, along with many other dignitaries, will be present for the dedication of the $57-million library complex. It would be the first meeting in history of five U.S. Presidents.

Neighbors described Ward, a bachelor, as a loner virtually without friends.

A law-enforcement source said Ward told an informant that he “had conducted surveillance of the area around the Reagan library and expressed frustration over locating a vantage point free from obstructions where he could get a shot at the President.

“Gee, I looked and I couldn’t get a clear shot,” he reportedly told the informant, who then turned the information over to the Ventura County sheriff.

Neighbor Waltz also said Ward had mentioned that the main road to the library site, Olsen Road, “was not a good location” to fire off any rounds.

Federal and local law-enforcement officials said Tuesday that they only knew of one prior arrest for Ward--a recent drunk-driving arrest by the California Highway Patrol. During that arrest a concealed .25-caliber handgun was found in Ward’s car, a law-enforcement source said.

Acting on a tip that Ward had amassed a major cache of automatic weapons, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department ordered a stakeout of Ward’s first-floor apartment in an earth-colored 244-unit complex on Oxnard’s Harbor Boulevard.

“I was called last Saturday afternoon at home by one of my intelligence agents,” said Vince France, a sheriff’s division commander who supervises major crime investigations.

By late Saturday, he said, the Sheriff’s Department had information that Ward had made comments about harming the President and notified the Secret Service.

After about 18 hours of surveillance, France said that at 9 a.m. Sunday, a sheriff’s detective called Ward from a patrol car and ordered him out of his apartment. Assisting in the arrest were agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

“He was taken into custody without incident,” France said.

Armed with a search warrant, sheriff’s deputies and ATF agents then made an eye-popping discovery in Ward’s apartment in a pleasantly landscaped complex called Harborwalk in the Hollywood Beach area of Oxnard.

Inside the apartment was a stockpile of 12 fully automatic weapons--including an Uzi submachine gun and AK-47 assault rifles--handguns and other rifles and about 27,000 rounds of ammunition.

It is illegal to own automatic weapons. In California, however, it is legal to own assault rifles, but they must be registered.

Also seized were two silencers, also illegal, which the Sheriff’s Department said could be used on a MAC-11, a 9-millimeter weapon that can be modified to fire automatically.

According to an affidavit, Lawrence J. Gallegos, an ATF agent, said a conversion kit that could turn an M-16 rifle into an automatic weapon was also found.

Also found were several practice grenades, about 250 rounds of tracer ammunition, night-vision goggles and laser sights, according to the affidavit and the sheriff.

“It’s scary,” France said, reflecting on the fast-approaching date of the library dedication. “Here, you’ve got a guy with automatic weapons. We don’t even know if he has associates.”

Ward’s neighbor, Waltz, described him as a heavy drinker who would sometimes dress in military fatigues and who claimed to be a mercenary.

She said Ward told her that he was a real estate broker by profession.

Although she described him as “very intelligent,” she said Ward’s opinions on international politics were “kind of far-fetched.”

When Ward visited the Waltzs’ apartment, Waltz said she felt uncomfortable and would leave the room.

“I thought he was really wigged out,” she said.

Times staff writer Kenneth R. Weiss and correspondent Patrick McCartney contributed to this story.