Before a wig-wearing nutjob threw a shoe at Hillary Clinton, the footwear flinger gave her heart to accused Colorado mass killer James Holmes.
Alison Ernst, 36, of Phoenix, was identified Friday as the sneaker-tossing kook who targeted the former First Lady one day earlier during a speech at a Las Vegas casino.
And Colorado officials confirmed she was the loopy lady escorted from the courtroom after a bizarre — and bald-headed — outburst during an August 2012 court hearing for Holmes.
The erratic Ernst sported a long blond wig, sandals and a blue dress when she fired the black-and-orange athletic shoe at Clinton’s head Thursday from about 60 feet away, according to a police report.
When security grabbed her, Ernst — who used a baseball-style overhand throwing motion — “appeared to be in an agitated state but aware of what she had just done,” the report said.
Twenty months earlier, she arrived in a Colorado courtroom with her head shaved while wearing a red dress before declaring she held evidence “vital to the defense of James Holmes.” Two deputies quickly escorted her outside.
The Arizona woman later filed an off-the-wall lawsuit detailing her devotion to Holmes, who was accused of killing 12 people and wounding another 70 in an Aurora movie theater.
“James enters my head like Dennis Quaid in ‘Innerspace’ and he zooms to my heart and plays with it and forces me to care for him,” read the rambling federal court document. “I seek a restraining order to stop Holmes from entering my mind through subliminal messaging and causing me to be obsessed with him on a daily basis.”
Ernst was charged with disorderly conduct in Thursday’s deja shoe incident, reminiscent of a similar footwear assault on former President George W. Bush in Iraq.
The attack on Clinton occurred off the Las Vegas Strip at the Mandalay Bay casino resort, authorities said. She was addressing 1,000 representatives from the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.
Ernst, after sneaking by security at a credential checkpoint, “walked at a quick pace toward the front of the conference crowd,” the single-page report recounted.
Once Ernst reached the spot about a shoe’s throw from Clinton, she reached into her purse and produced the black-and-orange projectile. Clinton shrugged the incident off with a joke.
“Is that part of the Cirque du Soleil?” she deadpanned after ducking the laced missile. “My goodness, I didn’t realize solid waste management was so controversial.”
Las Vegas authorities brought the charges against Ernst after federal authorities opted not to prosecute, according to Secret Service spokesman George Oglivie. She apparently tossed a declassified 1967 Defense Department document before being led from the room.
Ernst was released around 9 p.m., cops said. The suspect, who returns to court for a June 24 hearing, stood passively with her hands in the air once the shoe whizzed past Clinton’s right ear.
Valerie Miller reported from Las Vegas.
