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The Associated Press
Madison, Wis.

Federal agent: Man said he would kill Obama with slingshot

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Barack Obama
President Barack Obama arrives to speak at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, in La Crosse, Wis., Thursday, July 2, 2015, about the economy and to promote a proposed Labor Department rule that would make more workers eligible for overtime.
Carolyn Kaster | AP

A Secret Service agent has testified that a Wisconsin man charged with threatening to kill President Barack Obama said he planned to carry out an assassination with a slingshot.

Secret Service Special Agent Jeffrey Ferris testified Thursday at a detention hearing for 55-year-old Brian Dutcher of Tomah. He says Dutcher made the statement in an interview after being detained.

Prosecutors say Dutcher traveled to La Crosse, where Obama was scheduled to make a speech earlier this month. An affidavit says Dutcher told a library security guard he would "take (Obama) out" if he got the chance.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports defense attorney Joseph Bugni asked that Dutcher be released to a friend.

But Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker ruled Dutcher was a danger and a flight risk and ordered that he remain in custody pending a trial.