A 48-year-old Blackstone man who went to prison for threatening to kill President Clintonwas arrested in New Jersey on Thursdayinconnection with the slaying of his 83-year-old father, officials said.
Glenn R. Armstrong was taken into custody in Mount Laurel, N.J., Thursday evening, one day after the slaying of his father, Walter Armstrong, in the home the men shared, Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.’s office said.
The younger Armstrong was arrested on an unrelated warrant, but Early had described him earlier Thursday as a person of interest in Walter Armstrong’s slaying.
It was not clear when Armstrong will be brought back to Massachusetts, or if he will be charged with killing his father.
Blackstone police found the elder Armstrong dead in his bedroom at 36 Summer St. early Wednesday evening, Early said at a news conference.
Glenn Armstrong, who has served multiple prison terms, was driving his father’s 1995 Chevy truck when it ran out of gas Thursday in Mount Laurel, and local police arrested him in a hotel parking lot without incident, prosecutors said.
“It’s a very dangerous situation, especially now that we have a homicide,’’ Early said during the news conference on Thursday, before Armstrong’s arrest.
Earlydeclined to say how the elder Armstrong was killed or disclose a possible motive for the slaying.
Glenn Armstrong was arrested on an outstanding warrant for failing to provide a DNA sample to authorities after a prior conviction, Early said.
Early’s office did not indicate when, or if, they plan to charge Armstrong with killing his father, saying only in a brief statement that authorities would “work toward bringing Mr. Armstrong back to Worcester County.’’
Armstrong is well known to police and most recently served jail time in 2015 for assaulting a Blackstone bartender, Early said.
There was “a disruption and violence, threats of violence with the bartender,’’ leading Armstrong to be “tased and subdued’’ by police in that arrest, Early said.
Since Armstrong’s most recent release from custody, he has been in contact with the Blackstone police, and they have had several conversations with him, Early said. He did not elaborate.
The Armstrong family declined to comment when reached by phone.
Court records show Armstrong was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in 1996 for threatening the life of President Clinton two years earlier.
He pleaded guilty to a charge that he told a Falmouth ferry clerk that he was en route to Martha’s Vineyard to kill the vacationing president in August of 1994.
A judge credited Armstrong with time he had served and ordered him at sentencing to continue taking antipsychotic medication, by injection if necessary, calling him “a dangerous man,’’ the Globe reported at the time.
While in custody in New Hampshire before sentencing, Armstrong filed a $10 million prisoner civil rights lawsuit against the Rockingham County House of Correction, which a judge dismissed after finding no arguable legal basis for the complaint, according to court records.
