A security guard at Newark Liberty International Airport has been arrested for allegedly telling a colleague that he would assassinate President Barack Obama as well as for contraband after police found 50 "cop-killer" bullets and a stolen rifle  in his New Jersey home, reports New York's Newsday [1].

John Brek, a 55-year-old security guard employed by FJC Security Services [2] of Floral Park, New York, pleaded not guilty to three felony charges and is being held on a $220,000 bail bond. Prosecutors are also seeking a psychiatric evaluation of Brek.

President Barack Obama's travel schedule seems to have prompted police, reports Newsday.

He was arrested Tuesday, the night before Obama was due to land in Newark to campaign for Gov. Jon Corzine. Brek told another airport worker "he cut a hole in the fence to be able to shoot the president, that he was just a short distance away," according to the complaint filed in court. Brek also "simulated holding a rifle in the direction of where the president would be, with the purpose to put in him imminent fear of death," the complaint said.

Inside Brek's home, police found a tiny armory: eight handguns and 35 rifles, all legal. But they also found 50 rounds of 44-caliber, 240 grain-jacketed Remington hollow point bullets—infamously referred to as "cop-killer" bullets because they can pierce police bullet-proof vests—and a rifle that was reported stolen 11 years ago in Alabama.

Brek, according to Newsday, worked at a security shack guarding the Continental Airlines cargo building on the airport's tarmac. He did not have contact with the general public.

Brek's arrest is one more scandal for his employer, FJC Security Services. Just last month, two FJC security guards were fired from their job [3] guarding the George Washington Bridge, which connects New Jersey and Manhattan, after photographs of them sleeping in their guard hut surfaced on the Internet.

FJC officials reissued a statement from Wednesday saying the firm is cooperating with authorities when Newsday asked for a comment.

The security guard's union, which represents Brek, called FJC a responsible firm and that it "should not be judged by the alleged wrongdoing of one or two security officers."

♦ Photo of Continental airplane on tarmac of Newark Liberty International Airport by gregorian21/Flickr [4]

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