US authorities said on Sunday that an armed man was stopped at a police checkpoint near a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Southern California.
On Saturday, before Trump was scheduled to speak at a rally in the Coachella Valley west of Los Angeles, police stopped the 49-year-old man who was trying to drive a car onto the property.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco later said at a news conference that the man was carrying two unregistered guns and ammunition, as well as several passports and driver’s licenses with different names. The car was not registered and the license plate was ‘obviously fake’.
The 49-year-old was taken into custody, charged with violating gun laws and released on bail, Bianco said. The investigation is ongoing.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI said in a joint statement that the incident “did not impact protective operations and did not pose any threat to former President Trump.” Although no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing. “
Bianco emphasized that the man was detained before Trump arrived at the location. The sheriff added that he was convinced, without providing concrete evidence, that police “prevented something bad from happening.”
“If you ask me now, I probably had deputies prevent the third murder [on Trump],” Bianco said in response to a reporter’s question.
After the suspect’s release, several American journalists spoke to the man, who dismissed the accusation of a murder plot as nonsense.
The New York Post quoted security sources as saying that the Secret Service considered it unlikely that the man had tried to kill Trump. The tabloid also cited anonymous sources saying the suspect was a member of a right-wing extremist group and likely only carried the weapons for personal defense.
In mid-July, a gunman shot at Trump from a rooftop during an election campaign in Pennsylvania, with a bullet grazing the former US president’s right ear. One spectator died and two other spectators were seriously injured in the attack. The shooter was shot dead.
The Secret Service also believes it thwarted a second assassination attempt on Trump in Florida in September.
