A man was arrested and accused of illegal weapons possession as he was trying to enter former President Donald J. Trump’s rally in Coachella, Calif., on Saturday evening, the Riverside County sheriff’s office said on Sunday.
The man, whom they identified as Vem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas, was found to be illegally in possession of a shotgun, a loaded handgun and a high-capacity magazine, the sheriff’s office said. Mr. Miller was later released on bail, according to the county’s inmate information system.
Mr. Miller had been allowed through an outer ring of security as he drove toward the rally but was stopped by law enforcement officers at a second level of security, before Mr. Trump had arrived at the rally, Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, said in a news conference on Sunday.
In a joint statement, the U.S. attorney’s office, the Secret Service and the F.B.I. said that the Secret Service had determined “the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger.”
The statement said that “while no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing.”
It was not clear what Mr. Miller’s motives were. Mr. Bianco said at a news conference that he believed the arrest could have thwarted a third assassination attempt on Mr. Trump.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
