Armed man arrested at Trump rally in California on Saturday

Authorities say a man with a shotgun, a loaded handgun and ammunition in his vehicle was arrested at a security checkpoint at Donald Trump’s Saturday night rally in the southern California desert.

The suspect, a 49-year-old Las Vegas resident, was driving a black SUV that was stopped by deputies assigned to the rally in Coachella, east of Los Angeles, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

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

He was released on Saturday on $5,000 (€4,573) bail.

“This incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event,” the statement said.

The suspect is scheduled to appear in court in January next year, according to online records.

Media members, as well as VIP ticket holders, were routed through a number of intersections manned by state and local law enforcement officers before arriving 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 three 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, nor has Trump himself made any statement about it.

Assassination attempts

Trump, the Republican nominee for November’s presidential election, has been the target of two assassination attempts in recent months.

On 15 September, a man was arrested near Trump’s golf course in Florida after secret service agents spotted the muzzle of an AK-47 style rifle poking through the fence.

And on 13 July at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a bullet grazed Trump’s ear after a man opened fire from the roof of a nearby building.

Since that incident, Trump has appeared at open-air campaign rallies behind a bullet-proof screen.