Oscar Ramiro ­Ortega-Hernandez, the 21-year-old who allegedly fired shots which hit the White House last Friday, has been charged with attempting to assassinate the President.

­Ortega-Hernandez, who reportedly told investigators after he was captured that he “hates the president, he hates Washington, he hates society,” made his first court appearance today on federal charges of felony possession of a dangerous weapon in Pittsburgh. According to investigators, ­Ortega-Hernandez pulled up to within view of the presidential residence, then fired shots from an assault rifle. There have been questions about ­Ortega-Hernandez’s mental state leading up to the incident; one family member told the Associated Press that, in recent months, Ortega-Hernandez had come to believe “he was Jesus Christ and that the world was going to end.”

President Barack Obama was not in Washington at the time of the incident.