Me thinks the US border security needs re-evaluate it's training

[RACooper]

Right - what about this guy didn't send off any warning bells?

Man With Stained Chain Saw Let in to U.S.
http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg....TvO3tIqVmqyg--

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer Tue Jun 7,10:54 PM ET

BOSTON - On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres. Then they let him into the United States.

The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres' hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton's kitchen floor. His head was in a pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom.

Despres, 22, immediately became a suspect because of a history of violence between him and his neighbors, and he was arrested April 27 after police in Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweat shirt with red and brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an extradition hearing next month.

At a time when the United States is tightening its borders, how could a man toting what appeared to be a bloody chain saw be allowed into the country?

Bill Anthony, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the Canada-born Despres could not be detained because he is a naturalized U.S. citizen and was not wanted on any criminal charges on the day in question.

Anthony said Despres was questioned for two hours before he was released. During that time, he said, customs agents employed "every conceivable method" to check for warrants or see if Despres had broken any laws in trying to re-enter the country.

"Nobody asked us to detain him," Anthony said. "Being bizarre is not a reason to keep somebody out of this country or lock them up. ... We are governed by laws and regulations, and he did not violate any regulations."

Anthony conceded it "sounds stupid" that a man wielding what appeared to be a bloody chain saw could not be detained. But he added: "Our people don't have a crime lab up there. They can't look at a chain saw and decide if it's blood or rust or red paint."

Sgt. Gary Cameron of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would not comment on whether it was, in fact, blood on the chain saw.

On the same day Despres crossed the border, he was due in a Canadian court to be sentenced on charges he assaulted and threatened to kill Fulton's son-in-law, Frederick Mowat, last August.

Mowat told police Despres had been bothering his father-in-law for the past month. When Mowat confronted him, Despres allegedly pulled a knife, pointed it at Mowat's chest and said he was "going to get you all."

Police believe the dispute between the neighbors boiled over in the early-morning hours of April 24, when Despres allegedly broke into Fulton's home and stabbed to death the musician and 70-year-old Veronica Decarie.

Fulton's daughter found her father's body two days later. His car was later found in a gravel pit on a highway leading to the U.S. border. Despres hitchhiked to the border crossing.

After the bodies were found on the afternoon of April 26, police set up roadblocks and sent out a bulletin that identified Despres as a "person of interest" in the slayings, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The bulletin caught the eye of a Quincy police dispatcher because it gave the suspect's Massachusetts driver's license number, missing a character. The dispatcher plugged in numbers and letters until she found a last known address for Despres in Mattapoisett. She alerted police in that town, and an officer quickly spotted Despres.

In state court the next day, Despres told a judge that he is affiliated with
NASA and was on his way to a Marine Corps base in Kansas at the time of his arrest.

After the case was transferred to federal court, Despres' attorney, Michael Andrews, questioned whether his client is mentally competent.

Fulton's friends in Minto, a village of 2,700 people, told the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal that he was a popular musician, a guitarist known as the "Chet Atkins of Minto" and a 2001 inductee in the Minto Country Music Wall of Fame.

Now there have been numerous cases reported up here about people crossing the border being "profiled" and turned away because they are Muslim or Arab... with out any other reasoning provided. But this guy shows up at the border and is allowed across even despite what they found with him?

[squirrely girl]

hah hah - i love crazy guy mugshot photos!

- marissa

[AlphaSigOU]

Sick freak.

[tinydancer]

Just heard that on the radio and the dj was saying the dude's mug shot was creepy.

[moe.ron]

That is one messed up mug shot. Going to give me nightmares.

[33girl]

I think he's the runaway bride's baby brother.

[kddani]

eh, this could be a hoax, that pictures is terrible quality and looks fake. He looks like he's made out of plastic. Even Jacko doesn't look that plastic.

[mu_agd]

Originally posted by kddani
eh, this could be a hoax, that pictures is terrible quality and looks fake. He looks like he's made out of plastic. Even Jacko doesn't look that plastic.

I don't believe it is. It's been in most of the papers over the past day or two. I don't think the Boston Globe would print it if it's a hoax, especially since they say he is being held here. Also, the picture is probably not the best quality since it said it was taken from an image on television.

[AGDee]

I also think he looks like a mannequin. Weird

[_Opi_]

Freaky!

[opaldragon]

He's coming in from the northern border. Americans don't seem very concerned with what comes in from the North - even when the man is highly suspicious and is quite possibly a homicidal maniac carrying an assortment of weapons on his person, one of which is probably bloodied.
Had he come in from the southern border, he would have been detained without question. People get detained crossing the southern border just because they want to run their information (and yes, I noted that he was held for two hours), and if the authorities still have nothing tangible to hold the person on but have a strong feeling something is awry, they will FIND something to hold the person on.

[CutiePie2000]

Originally posted by opaldragon
He's coming in from the northern border. Americans don't seem very concerned with what comes in from the North -

They're getting better. After all, they nabbed Ahmed Ressam as he tried to cross into Washington from BC.

[dzrose93]

The thing that shocked me most is the line: "Despres hitchhiked to the border crossing."


Who thinks it's a good idea to pick up a hitchhiker dressed in a bloody sweatshirt and holding a sword, hatchet, knife and chainsaw????

[cash78mere]

that can't be a real person. it has to be fake.

[Tom Earp]

Hm, if We as American Back in the Old Days of The invasion of Canada had not given it back, it would have never come to this!

Sorry Bro. but this dude looks like a physco from Hell!

Need more TV Detectives on the case, they always solve it in 1 hour give or take with commercials.

Where should He have been stopped and by whom at the Border.