COACHELLA, Calif.—The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department arrested an armed man who allegedly said he wanted to “kill the president” outside the perimeter of a Trump rally on Oct. 12, Sheriff Chad Bianco told to journalists in a text message on Oct. 13.
The rally was held in the city of Coachella in Southern California, 130 miles east of Los Angeles. Around 50,000 people showed up at the event, said the sheriff.
“We arrested a man trying to get in the perimeter with two firearms who ended up saying he was going to kill the president,” Bianco said in the text.
At around 5 p.m., deputies assigned to the rally encountered the driver of a black SUV at a checkpoint at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive, said the sheriff’s department in a news alert on Oct. 13.
The driver was initially allowed through an outer security perimeter, said Bianco at an afternoon press conference.
“As he got to the inside perimeter, where deputies were conducting obviously a more thorough evaluation of the vehicles that were coming in, there were many irregularities that popped up,” said the sheriff.
The interior of the vehicle was in disarray and it had a fake license plate, said Bianco, prompting further investigation. The driver was found to have in his possession multiple passports with multiple names and multiple driver’s licenses with different names, and the vehicle was unregistered. Multiple unregistered weapons were also found.
The driver was taken into custody and booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center for possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine.
He has since been released on $5,000 bond.
“This incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event,” said the department.
Bianco confirmed at the press conference that he believes his deputies helped thwart a potential assassination attempt.
The sheriff said the man arrested is suspected of belonging to a “sovereign citizens” group that doesn’t believe in the authority of the government. He said the sheriff’s department is working with the Secret Service and the FBI on the case. Any further charges will be filed by the federal government.
At the press conference the sheriff declined to comment on the alleged statements made by the suspect regarding Trump.
The arrest occurred in the wake of two previous alleged assassination attempts on Trump, the first on July 13 when a shooter’s bullet grazed the former president’s ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the second at the former president’s golf course in Florida in mid-September.
Another man, an Iraqi national, who was singled out as a “hit” by police dogs trained to identify explosives, was also turned away from the event, Bianco told to journaliasts of the Epoch Times.
Vem Miller, who was caught with multiple illegal firearms and fake press passes just feet away from Trump's Coachella rally in an alleged a*sassination attempt, has already been released on a $5K bail.
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) October 13, 2024
What’s more alarming is that Miller was recently seen in close proximity to… pic.twitter.com/ZKyz1NdYg7
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