Possible third Trump assassination attempt thwarted in Coachella, Riverside County sheriff says

COACHELLA, Calif. - A possible third assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was thwarted near his rally in the Coachella Valley Saturday, according to Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

The suspect has been identified as 49-year-old Vem Miller of Las Vegas. 

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According to the sheriff's department, Miller was driving a black SUV, approaching a checkpoint at the perimeter leading to the entrance of the event at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive around 5 p.m. when he was contacted by deputies. 

Miller apparently told authorities he was a journalist and claimed he had access to get into the VIP area of the rally. But after an initial evaluation, deputies found "irregularities" in Miller's story. 

It was discovered that Miller was driving in an unregistered vehicle with a fake license plate, and was also in possession of multiple passports and driver's licenses with different names, Sheriff Bianco said during a press conference Sunday. 

Two guns and multiple boxes of ammunition were also recovered inside the SUV. 

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Miller was taken into custody for possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine. Authorities said Miller was also illegally in possession of a shotgun. He was booked and has since been released.

"This incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event," officials said, since this happened before Trump arrived in the area.

"We prevented something bad from happening," Bianco said. 

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department is working alongside the FBI and Secret Service as the investigation continues. 

Trump took advantage of his Coachella visit to tear into the nation’s most populous state, bringing up its recent struggles with homelessness, water shortages and a lack of affordability.

"We’re not going to let Kamala Harris do to America what she did to California," Trump said, referring to the state as as "Paradise Lost."

Speaking for 80 minutes Saturday night, Trump ran through the standard list of Republican complaints about the Democrat-dominated state — its large number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, its homeless population and its thicket of regulations — and waded into a water rights battle over the endangered Delta smelt that has pitted environmentalists against farmers.

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The former president was particularly scathing about illegal immigration, warning at one point: "Your children are in danger. You can’t go to school with these people, these people are from a different planet."

Trump visited Coachella in between stops in Nevada, at a roundtable in Las Vegas for Latinos earlier Saturday — where he praised Hispanics as having "such energy" — and Arizona, for a rally Sunday in Prescott Valley. He narrowly lost those two swing states to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.

The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.