A Washington, D.C., man accused of shining a laser pointer at Marine One as President Donald Trump was departing the White House over the weekend has been charged with a felony.
Jacob Samuel Winkler, 33, was spotted by a uniformed Secret Service officer loudly talking to himself while standing on the sidewalk near the White House Saturday night. The officer waved a flashlight at Winkler, who then retaliated by flashing a red laser beam in the officer’s face.
As Marine One flew overhead carrying Trump, Winkler looked up and aimed the laser pointer directly at the helicopter, the officer wrote in an affidavit.
After he was handcuffed, Winkler started repeatedly saying: “I should apologize to Donald Trump,” and “I apologize to Donald Trump,” according to the affidavit.
Winkler was charged Monday with aiming the beam of a laser pointer at an aircraft, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone on the helicopter noticed the laser. The White House did not immediately return a request for comment from The Independent.
The officer noted in the affidavit that Winkler’s actions could have temporarily blinded or disoriented the pilot, putting Marine One at risk of colliding with another aircraft or crashing.
“This behavior endangers Marine One and everyone on board,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement. “If you engage in this act, you will be identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Meanwhile, Winkler told authorities that he regularly points the laser “at all kinds of things,” like stop signs, and didn’t know he couldn’t direct the beam at Marine One, according to the affidavit.
Investigators also found a small knife in Winkler’s possession, according to the officer.
At the time of the incident, Trump was headed to Mount Vernon, the former Virginia estate of George Washington, to give a speech at the American Cornerstone Institute.
