Armed Man Arrested Outside Trump Rally in California Faces Gun Charges

COACHELLA, Calif.—The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department arrested an armed man outside the perimeter of a Trump rally in the city of Coachella in Southern California, 130 miles east of Los Angeles, on Oct. 12. The arrest was made before former President Trump arrived on site.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to be saying, after the fact, that I wish we would have done something to prevent that shooting.”

He said, “From a state law enforcement agency’s perspective, the firearms charges are what we arrested him for and booked him on … There were two guns, and multiple boxes of ammunition for both, there was a handgun and a shotgun.

“We know that we prevented something bad from happening, and it’s irrelevant what that bad was going to be.”

“The U.S. Secret Service assesses that the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger,” the agencies said in a joint statement.

“While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing.”

“As he got to the inside perimeter, where deputies were conducting obviously a more thorough evaluation of the vehicles that were coming in, there were many irregularities that popped up,” the sheriff said.

The interior of the vehicle was in disarray, was unregistered, and had a fake license plate, Bianco said, prompting further investigation despite the driver’s claims that he was a journalist with VIP access to the event. The driver was also found to have in his possession multiple passports with multiple names and multiple driver’s licenses with different names. Multiple unregistered weapons and boxes of ammunition for both weapons were also found.

The driver was taken into custody for the state crimes of driving an unregistered vehicle, possession of a loaded firearm, and possession of a high-capacity magazine and booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center.

He has since been released on $5,000 bond.

“I’m an artist, I’m the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody,” he said.

Bianco said in response, “We didn’t arrest him for going inside the facility, we arrested him for having illegal guns in his car. What his frame of mind was, really, all we can do is speculate, unless we truly just want to believe anything that he tells us.”

The sheriff’s department said the “incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event,” as the suspect was detained before he got to the event entrance.

Earlier in the day Bianco told The Epoch Times in a text message: “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 confirmed at the press conference that he believes his deputies helped thwart a potential assassination attempt but declined to comment on the alleged statements made by the suspect regarding Trump.

Bianco said the sheriff’s department is working with the Secret Service and the FBI on the case. Any further charges, if any, will be filed by the federal government.

“They’re saying that I’m part of these right-wing anti-government groups. Why aren’t they naming these groups? Because it doesn’t exist,” he added.

Bianco said that from law enforcement’s point of view, the sovereign citizens political movement is “certainly considered a far-right group.”

“In my own personal belief, I wouldn’t say it’s a militant group, it’s just a group that doesn’t believe in government and government control. They don’t believe that the government and laws apply to them. So I think it’s fringe one way or another.”

He added, “Like a lot of different groups, bad apples give a group a bad name. I’m not going to say that that group, as a whole, is a violent group.”