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 The Epoch Times in a text message on Sunday.
The rally was held in the city of Coachella in Southern California, 130 miles east of Los Angeles.
“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 Sunday.
The driver, identified as Vem Miller, a 49-year-old resident of Las Vegas, was accused of illegally possessing a shotgun, a loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine.
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.
“This incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event,” said the department.
Bianco later confirmed to the Riverside Press-Enterprise that Miller was suspected of plotting to kill 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 his ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the second at the former president’s golf course in Florida in mid-September.
Further details of the California arrest were not immediately available.
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 said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
From The Epoch Times