Los Angeles, USA:
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office announced Sunday that deputies assigned to protect a Donald Trump rally in Coachella, California, arrested a man illegally possessing a shotgun and a loaded handgun. .
The Secret Service said it was aware of the arrest and that neither President Trump nor rally attendees were in any danger during the incident, which occurred on Saturday.
The organization, which is tasked with protecting presidents and presidential candidates, said in a joint statement with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office that “no federal arrests have been made at this time, but the investigation is ongoing.”
The man, identified as Bem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas, has since been released on bail and is scheduled for a court hearing on January 2, the sheriff’s team said.
He added that officers at a checkpoint near the rally arrested Miller as he approached in a black SUV.
They then booked him into a local jail on charges of possessing a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine.
This incident occurred on the heels of two assassination attempts. One attack ended in Pennsylvania, where a bullet grazed President Trump’s ear, and the other failed at a golf course in Florida.
“None of us will ever really know what was going through his head,” said Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Trump supporter who also spoke at a Republican rally in Coachella on Saturday. Absolutely not,” he said.
Bianco, a former member of the far-right group Oath Keepers, told a news conference: “If you ask me now, there probably was an agent who thwarted the third assassination attempt.”
Bianco said the man had “multiple” passports and identification documents with different names in his unregistered car. He said further charges would come from federal authorities.
There was no immediate comment from the Trump campaign.
President Trump’s decision to hold a rally in California surprised political analysts who note the state is heavily Democratic, despite temperatures near 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). , President Trump had a large audience.
Coachella is known for its annual music festival.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
