A man was arrested Saturday outside former President Trump’s rally in Riverside County on suspicion of illegal possession of a shotgun, a handgun and a high-capacity magazine, sheriff’s officials said.
Vem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas, was booked into the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio on charges of possessing loaded firearms, Riverside County sheriff’s officials said. He has since been released on bail pending his appearance in court.
Officers found the weapons after searching Miller’s black SUV at a checkpoint at Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive in Coachella around 5 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.
At a news conference Sunday, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said his deputies likely foiled an assassination attempt, although he acknowledged “there is absolutely no way let none of us really know what’s in there.” [the suspect’s] head.”
According to Bianco, Miller drove his SUV through an exterior perimeter maintained by sheriff’s deputies before being questioned at a checkpoint closer to the rally entrance. Miller claimed to have credentials to attend the rally as both a journalist and a VIP guest, but was unable to produce any documents.
The deputy who questioned Miller noticed what Bianco called “numerous irregularities” with his SUV: the license plate was wrong, the vehicle was not registered and the interior was “a mess,” said the sheriff.
A search of the SUV revealed fake passports and driver’s licenses with different names, weapons and ammunition, Bianco said.
Bianco said he identified the suspect as Miller “with an asterisk” because he had identification with multiple names. The suspect said his name was Vem Miller, according to the sheriff.
The homemade license plate “indicates individuals claiming to be sovereign citizens,” Bianco said, referring to an ideology whose supporters do not view government authorities as legitimate. Bianco considered it irrelevant that most sovereign citizens subscribe to far-right beliefs.
“He was crazy,” the sheriff said.
When asked if he was speculating by calling Miller a potential assassin, Bianco said it was “common sense” to suspect that someone carrying guns and fake IDs during ‘a political rally was intended to hurt people.
“We know we stopped something bad from happening,” said the sheriff, who himself attended the Trump rally. “It didn’t matter what it was going to be.”
Bianco said the investigation into Miller’s intentions would be led by the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In a statement Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said prosecutors and agents from the Secret Service and FBI were investigating.
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 killed the gunman, Thomas Crooks, who had opened fire from the roof of a nearby building. One rally attendee, Corey Comperatore, was killed protecting his family from gunfire.
In September, police arrested a man near Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. She suspects Ryan Routh intended to shoot the former president with an SKS rifle while he was hiding in the bushes bordering the golf club.
Prosecutors say Routh had a handwritten list of dates and locations where Trump was scheduled to appear.
Routh is charged with attempted murder of a presidential candidate, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, assault on a federal officer, possession of a firearm and ammunition as a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
