Las Vegas man arrested with illegal firearms outside Trump Coachella rally

A man was arrested at a checkpoint outside of former President Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella on Saturday night for illegally possessing two loaded firearms, according to the California Riverside County Sheriff’s Department on Sunday.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s department arrested 49-year-old Vem Miller of Las Vegas on Saturday night, before Trump arrived at the rally, according to Sheriff Chad Bianco on Sunday. Bianco said upon further investigation, Miller was found to be illegally possessing a shotgun, a handgun and a high-capacity magazine for the handgun in his car.

The black SUV that Miller was driving was also unregistered with a fake, handmade license plate; deputies also discovered fake driver’s licenses and passports with different names, according to Bianco.

Miller was taken into custody but released on bond less than 24 hours after the arrest. Bianco said the Sheriff’s Department’s investigation is complete, and they are actively working with Secret Service and the FBI “to ensure the person is followed up on.”

It’s not clear if Miller meant to attempt to harm Trump or anyone else, but Bianco indicated he thought it was quite possible. “If you’re asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt,” Bianco said when pressed during a press conference on Sunday. He later reiterated: “I truly do believe that we prevented another assassination attempt and it was solely by our effort of keeping those types of people out.”

The Sheriff’s Office said there was no impact on the safety of attendees or Trump from this incident.

“From my perspective, from a state law enforcement agency’s perspective, the firearms charges are what we arrested him for and booked him on,” Bianco said during a press conference. “Anything further will come from the federal government. And, quite frankly, I don’t know if we will be a part of that.”

Shortly after Bianco’s comments at the press conference, United States Attorney Martin Estrada from the Central District of California released a statement saying the U.S. Attorney’s Office, U.S. Secret Service, and FBI were aware of the arrest.

“The U.S. Secret Service assesses that the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger,” they wrote in a statement. “While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing.”

Bianco said Miller was allowed to drive into an outer perimeter after telling authorities he was a journalist. At a checkpoint outside an internal perimeter, Bianco said deputies were doing more thorough checks and noticed “irregularities” from Miller and his car that sparked further investigation. This is when they discovered the illegal forms of identification and firearms and arrested Miller.

During the press conference, Bianco repeated that an investigation into an assassination attempt would be at the federal level, not state: “If they were ever able to prove it was an assassination attempt — and I’m not saying they’re going to be able to — anything like that would be federal.”

The Sheriff also noted that he was in attendance at the Coachella rally with his family, in VIP seating. Trump gave Bianco a shout-out during the rally.

Bianco also addressed questions about Miller, who told other reporters after being released that he was shocked to be arrested and that he supports Trump.

“I couldn’t care less what political party he belongs to,” Bianco said. “I honestly think that’s the stupidest thing in the world that we have to label something and we’re labeling this as politics. He was a lunatic.”