Man arrested outside Trump’s rally with 2 guns, fake passports

A Nevada man with a shotgun, loaded handgun, ammunition and several fake passports in his vehicle was arrested at a security checkpoint outside Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday night in the Southern California desert, authorities said on October 11, 2024.

He was released the same day with $5,000 bail.

The suspect (Vem Miller), a 49-year-old resident of Las Vegas, was driving an unregistered black SUV with a “homemade” license plate and was stopped by deputies assigned to the rally in Coachella, east of Los Angeles, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said at a conference Sunday afternoon.

The driver claimed to be a journalist, but it was unclear if he had the proper credentials.

Deputies noticed the interior of the vehicle was “in disarray” and a search uncovered the weapons and ammo, along with multiple passports and driver licenses with different names, Bianco said.

The man was arrested on suspicion of possessing a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine, the department said in a statement.

The incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event, the Saturday statement said.

Trump had not yet arrived at the rally at the time of the arrest, the sheriff said Sunday.

The suspect is scheduled to appear in court January 2, 2025, according to available information.

Bianco declined to speculate about the suspect’s motives or frame of mind.

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

“The man made it past an outer security boundary and was stopped at an inner perimeter patrolled by the sheriff’s department,” Bianco said.

Another security checkpoint closer to the rally site was operated by the Secret Service.

The U.S. Secret Service assesses that the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement .

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

Media members, as well as VIP ticket holders, were routed through a number of intersections manned by state and local law enforcement officers.

They will later arrive at a large, grassy area where drivers were asked to open hoods and trunks, and each vehicle was searched by a K-9 officer.

Other general ticket holders were directed to a site roughly 3 miles away from the rally, where they were boarded onto buses and driven to the site.

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the arrest.

Security is very tight at Trump rallies following two recent assassination attempts.

Last month, a man was indicted on an attempted assassination charge after authorities said he staked out the former president for 12 hours and wrote of his desire to kill him.

The Florida arrest came two months after Trump was shot and wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

According to reports, there are quite a few questions that remain unanswered following Saturday’s arrest outside Trump’s rally in Coachella, California.

While Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said it was impossible to speculate about what was in the mind of the suspect, whom he called a “lunatic,” he said “truly believed” that his officers had prevented a third assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

He added that it may be impossible to prove that this was the man’s intent.

Federal authorities say they are still investigating the incident, and it would be up to them to pursue any additional charges.

The incident highlights, once again, the intense security operation around Donald Trump, and the dangers facing the former president, with just over 3 weeks to go for the election.

Suspect Vem Miller told authorities he was a member of the far-right group called Sovereign Citizens, Sheriff Bianco said.

He said the license plate was also “indicative of a group of individuals that claim to be Sovereign Citizens” but has not concluded that Miller was a member.

“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 government and laws apply to them,” the sheriff said.

Bianco said that the Riverside County Sheriff’s office’s investigation is relatively done.

He added that a continuation of the investigation “will be a cooperation between us, the Secret Service and the FBI”.

He noted that the suspect was able to get through to the second perimeter because “he claimed to be a journalist and also to have VIP status at the event”.

Sheriff proud of their team’s security

The sheriff said that with what his team was able to do, he was “completely confident that there was absolutely nothing” that would happen inside the Coachella venue.

“I am extremely proud of what the deputies did and the personal buy-in that they took upon themselves to ensure the safety of our former president and the attendees of the rally.

“We did exactly what he had hoped for,” the security said.

Suspect was a ‘lunatic’, sheriff says

Sheriff Bianco says his office is still in contact with the Secret Service and the FBI to investigate the incident “until we get to the bottom of it.

He was then asked about the suspect’s political affiliation, a question which the sheriff dismisses.

Bianco said he doesn’t know the suspect’s political affiliation but says he was a lunatic.

The sheriff, meanwhile, snapped back at a reporter who asked him if his remarks about the suspects motives were dramatic.

He responded: “We have a serious, serious problem in this country, because this is common sense and reason.

“There is no way to know the motive.

“There is absolutely no way any of us are going to know what truly was in his head… 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,” he added.

“The deputy found multiple passports with multiple names, multiple drivers’ licences,” the sheriff says, adding that the licence plate was “homemade” and not registered.

“There are things I cannot tell you,” the sheriff said.

Chad Bianco, a Riverside County sheriff, opened the press briefing saying he may not be able to give all of the information because of what we’re doing but will be disclosed later on after the investigation.

Trump has tight security

Peter Bowes said that Security measures around Donald Trump are now on a par with that of a sitting president.

The Republican candidate was grazed by a bullet during a rally in Pennsylvania in July, and a man allegedly tried to kill him last month at his golf course in Florida.

The nature of this latest incident is not yet clear, but based on the limited details released so far, Mr Trump’s life does not appear to have been in immediate danger.

That said, the authorities and Mr Trump’s security detail will have been on high alert.

It was a surprise that the former president decided to campaign this weekend in California, given that the state is solidly Democratic.

It was, however, an opportunity for him to highlight what he sees as Kamala Harris’s failed record in her home state.

This is the third gunman near Trump to have run-in with police

There have been limited details about the incident which involved a suspect arrested for illegal possession of firearms and ammo near Trump’s California rally on Saturday.

Police encountered suspect Vem Miller and spotted the firearms when they stopped his black SUV at a security checkpoint near the venue in Coachella.

The former president’s security detail had been heightened intensely after two previous alleged assassination attempts.

In July, a sniper positioned on a roof in Butler, Pennsylvania, fired multiple rounds at Trump during his rally, injuring the former president’s ear and killing one attendee.

The Secret Service snipers returned fire and killed the gunman.

In September, a man was arrested outside of the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, after they spotted the muzzle of a rifle poking through the bushes a few hundred yards away.

He is presently in custody.

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