Man arrested near Trump rally in Coachella with shotgun, handgun, authorities say

COACHELLA, Calif. – A man was arrested outside former President Donald Trump’s rally in Riverside County, California, on Saturday and charged with illegal possession of a shotgun, handgun and high-capacity magazine, sheriff’s officials said.

Vem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas, was arrested and booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio, California, on charges of possessing loaded firearms, Riverside County sheriff’s officials said in a news release.

Deputies found the guns and magazine after searching Miller’s black SUV at a checkpoint at Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive in Coachella about 5 p.m., authorities said.

The arrest “did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event,” sheriff’s officials said. No other information about Miller or the incident was immediately available.

Trump narrowly avoided an assassination attempt in July at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A bullet grazed his ear before snipers assigned to his Secret Service detail killed the gunman, Thomas Crooks, who had opened fire from the roof of a nearby building. A rally attendee, Corey Comperatore, was killed shielding his family from the gunfire.

In September, police arrested a man near Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. They suspect that Ryan Routh intended to shoot the former president with an SKS rifle while hiding in the shrubbery lining the golf club.

Prosecutors say Routh possessed a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was expected to appear.

Routh is charged with attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer), possessing a firearm and ammunition as a felon, and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.