Sheriff’s deputies assigned to protect Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella, California arrested a man found illegally carrying a firearm and a loaded handgun, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office announced Sunday.
The Secret Service said it was aware of the arrest and that neither Trump nor rally attendees were in any danger during Saturday’s incident.
“While no federal arrests have been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing,” the organization that protects presidents and presidential candidates said in a joint statement with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The man, identified as Wem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas, was later released on bail and faces a court hearing on Jan. 2, the sheriff’s team said.
Deputies manning a checkpoint near the rally arrested Miller as he arrived in a black SUV, he said.
They later booked him at a local detention center on charges of possession of a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine.
The incident follows two assassination attempts – one in Pennsylvania in which a bullet grazed Trump’s ear, and another, failed attempt at his Florida golf course.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco – a Trump supporter who also addressed the Republican rally in Coachella on Saturday – said that “there’s no way any of us can really know what was on his mind.”
“If you were asking me right now, I probably had deputies who stopped a third assassination attempt,” Bianco, a former member of the far-right Oath Keepers group, said at a news conference.
Bianco said the man had “multiple” passports and IDs with different names in the vehicle, which was unregistered. He said any further charges would come from federal authorities.
There was no immediate comment from the Trump campaign.
Trump’s decision to hold the rally in California surprised political analysts, who note that the state is overwhelmingly Democratic, but he attracted a large crowd even in temperatures near 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius).
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.)
