Vem Miller was arrested after being found with a handgun, a shotgun and a high-capacity magazine and outside the rally in Coachella
Donald Trump’s “would-be assassin” carried multiple forms of ID in different names and claimed to be a journalist before he was arrested before a rally in California on Saturday night.
Vem Miller, 49, from Las Vegas, was arrested after being found with a handgun, a shotgun and a high-capacity magazine and outside the rally in Coachella, California, on Saturday, The Riverside County Sheriffs Office said. Police insist they stopped a third assassination on the former president.
Police said he had multiple passports and IDs with different names. Police said he claimed to be a journalist and had a fake VIP and press badge. Police also said he drove an unregistered car with fake license plates. Miller was released on a $5,000 bail.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said: “Yesterday afternoon before former President Trump arrived to the rally, we made contact with an individual on the inner perimeter at the rally. We had a very detailed plan in place on how we were going to keep not only the former president safe but also the participants and attendees of the rally safe.
Vem Miller was released on a $5,000 bail (Image:Instagram)
“We had a larger outside perimeter and an inner perimeter. We did not keep residents from their homes. The outside perimeter was to allow people in. The inside perimeter was to make sure people were proceeding in the right direction.
“He approached the outside perimeter and gave all indications that he belonged there and he was a participant that was allowed to get into VIP and a press corp. He was allowed through that outer perimeter.
“As he got to the inside perimeter where deputies were conducting a more thorough investigation, there were many irregularities that popped up. The deputy noticed the interior of the vehicle was in quite disarray. The vehicle had an obvious fake license plate and that prompted further investigation into why the person was there and what he was going.
“The deputy found multiple passports with multiple names, multiple driver’s licenses with different names. The vehicle was unregistered and the license plate was what we, in law enforcement, would recognize that is homemade. During the investigation, those identification documents were found in addition to a loaded handgun and a loaded shotgun.
“This was before the former president arrived. The person was taken into custody and booked into charges. He was released and will have to further his court case in the future.”
Sheriff Bianco said Miller has not declared his motive for bringing loaded guns to the rally. He said: “There is absolutely no way that any of us are going to truly know what was in his head.
Vem Miller was released on a $5,000 bail (Image:Instagram)
“None of the other 50,000 people that showed up for that event brought multiple passports with different names and guns. What his frame of mind was, all we can do is speculate.
“I’m glad we’re not talking about this after we shot him. No matter what, it’s all going to be speculation. He showed up with multiple passports with different names, an unregistered vehicle with fake license plates and loaded firearms.”
Sheriff Bianco said he believes police stopped the third assassination attempt on the former president. He said: I truly do believe we prevented another assassination attempt. It was solely by our effort to keep those type of people out. I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt.”