LOS ANGELES — A Nevada man with a shotgun, loaded handgun, ammunition and several other pretend passports in his car was arrested at a safety checkpoint outdoors Donald Trump’s rally Saturday night time within the Southern California desert, authorities mentioned. He was launched the identical day on $5,000 bail.
The suspect, a 49-year-old resident of Las Vegas, was driving an unregistered black SUV with a “selfmade” license plate that was stopped by deputies assigned to the rally in Coachella, east of Los Angeles, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco mentioned at a information convention Sunday afternoon.
The driving force claimed to be a journalist but it surely was unclear if he had the correct credentials. Deputies observed the inside of the car was “in disarray” and a search uncovered the weapons and ammo, together with a number of passports and driver licenses with completely different names, Bianco mentioned.
The person was arrested on suspicion of possessing a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity journal, the division mentioned in a press release.
“This incident didn’t affect the security of former President Trump or attendees of the occasion,” the Saturday assertion mentioned. Trump had not but arrived on the rally on the time of the arrest, the sheriff mentioned Sunday.
The suspect is scheduled to look in courtroom on Jan. 2, 2025, in keeping with on-line data.
Bianco declined to invest in regards to the suspect’s motives or mind set. “We all know we prevented one thing dangerous from occurring, and it was irrelevant what that dangerous was going to be,” Bianco mentioned.
The person made it previous an outer safety boundary and was stopped at an interior perimeter patrolled by the sheriff’s division, Bianco mentioned. One other safety checkpoint nearer to the rally web site was operated by the Secret Service.
“The U.S. Secret Service assesses that the incident didn’t affect protecting operations and former President Trump was not in any hazard,” the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace mentioned in a press release Sunday. “Whereas no federal arrest has been made right now, the investigation is ongoing.”
Media members, in addition to VIP ticket holders, had been routed via a lot of intersections manned by state and native legislation enforcement officers earlier than arriving at a big, grassy space the place drivers had been requested to open hoods and trunks, and every car was searched by a Ok-9 officer. Different common ticket holders had been directed to a web site roughly 3 miles away from the rally, the place they had been boarded onto buses and pushed to the positioning.
Trump’s marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the arrest.
Safety could be very tight at Trump rallies following two latest assassination makes an attempt. Final month, a person was indicted on an tried assassination cost after authorities mentioned he staked out the previous president for 12 hours and wrote of his want to kill him. The Florida arrest got here two months after Trump was shot and wounded within the ear in an assassination try throughout a marketing campaign rally in Pennsylvania.