California man arrested for possession of illegal firearms at Trump rally checkpoint News
Riverside County Sheriff's Department, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
California man arrested for possession of illegal firearms at Trump rally checkpoint

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco announced that a man was arrested on Saturday for attempting to bring two unregistered guns through a security checkpoint at former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella, California.

The man, named Vem Miller, was arrested for charges relating to the possession of the unregistered firearms. The Sheriff reported that any additional charges relating to allegations of an assassination attempt are pending the federal investigation into Miller that is currently underway.

Riverside County police operated an outer and inner perimeter to control the vehicles that could enter for the rally. The perimeters restricted access to residents, those with VIP access to the rally or those with press credentials. Miller entered through the rally’s outside perimeter with VIP participant and journalist credentials. Deputies searched his vehicle at the inside perimeter, where they found an unregistered loaded handgun, shotgun with multiple boxes of ammunition, a high-capacity magazine, multiple passports and driver’s licenses with different names.

Upon further investigation, they found that his vehicle was unregistered and that he had a fake homemade license plate indicating an association with a group of people called Sovereign Citizens.

Bianco alleged that the arrest, “prevented the third assassination attempt [against Trump]”. These events come recently after another person was arrested for an apparent assassination attempt against Trump while he was golfing a West Palm Beach, Florida a few weeks before. In July, Trump was shot in the ear while attending his rally in Bulter, Pennsylvania.

Bianco stated that Miller is currently released from custody with a state court case pending. The Riverside County police are working with the US Secret Service and the FBI to assist them with federal investigation into additional charges.