New Evidence Hints Gunman Targeted Clinton

A note scrawled on a map and statements by a former co-worker have led investigators to believe that Francisco Martin Duran, the Colorado man accused of spraying bullets at the White House, may have come to Washington to try to assassinate President Clinton, federal sources said Tuesday.

As a result of the new evidence, federal prosecutors are considering a new and more serious charge of attempted assassination of the President, the sources said.

If it is filed, the charge would be in addition to the four felony charges Duran already faces in federal court.

Until the new evidence surfaced, investigators had been reluctant to attribute a motive to Duran, who fired 20 to 30 rounds from a Chinese assault rifle at the White House on Saturday afternoon. Clinton was in the White House private residence watching a football game at the time and was never at risk.

The note, scrawled on a map found inside Duran’s pickup truck, appeared to say “kill the President” but the last word was unclear and may not be a reference to the President, a source close to the case said.

It was the second note to surface from Duran’s truck. Federal sources on Sunday described the first one as a “semi-suicide” letter that did not contain specific threats toward Clinton.

The other new evidence Tuesday came from statements by David Millis, 20, who once worked with Duran at the Broadmoor resort hotel in Colorado Springs. Millis said in interviews Tuesday with the Associated Press and television’s “A Current Affair” that he heard Duran say he planned to shoot the President.

Duran said he wanted “to take out the President,” Millis said in a paid interview on the television show. Millis added that he had volunteered the information to the FBI after Saturday’s incident.

Millis told the AP in a telephone interview that, when Duran made the threats, “I didn’t think he was serious. I thought he was full of hot air.

“He used to come over to my house and he used to talk a lot about the government, how it had screwed him over . . . and stuff like assassinating the President,” Millis said.

Also Tuesday, Eric H. Holder Jr., U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, designated the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the lead agency in the case.

The move is significant because the FBI has jurisdiction in such matters only if they involve an attempted assassination. Otherwise, the Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the President, would be the investigating agency.

A Clinton Administration official said late Tuesday that the Duran case is caught in a turf battle between the Secret Service and the FBI.

Each agency is emphasizing evidence that would give it jurisdiction, the official said.

The official went on to say that he believes the exact charges may matter little in the end because Duran appears to have mental problems and could be judged incompetent to stand trial. If so, he would be committed to a mental institution.

A federal judge has ordered Duran to undergo a mental evaluation to determine his competency. But the defendant refused to proceed with the evaluation Tuesday after his attorney began filing motions trying to stop it.

Leigh Kenny, Duran’s public defender, asked U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson to delay the evaluation until after Duran’s preliminary hearing. Robinson denied the motion. Kenny immediately appealed to Chief Judge John Garrett Penn of the U.S. District Court, who also denied it.

At the hearing before Penn, Assistant U.S. Atty. John Facciola said that Duran had told a psychiatrist trying to conduct the evaluation that “in light of the action by his counsel he would not speak to her.”

A source close to the case said that the preliminary competency exam is expected to take place today. The purpose of the examination is to determine if Duran is mentally capable of understanding the charges against him and of aiding in his defense.

If Duran is convicted of the four counts already lodged against him, he would face a prison term of as much as 35 years and a fine of $1 million.

Clinton, campaigning for Democratic candidates, said that he and his family plan no big changes in their lives. But he said: “We will be prudent. We will be safe.”

The gunman “was obviously trying to do something to draw attention to himself, not trying to hurt us,” Clinton said in a telephone interview with WPRO in Providence, R.I.