A British man arrested at a weekend Donald Trump rally in
Las Vegas tried to grab a police officer’s gun so he could kill the
presidential candidate after planning an assassination for about a year,
according to authorities. U.S. Secret Service agents said Michael Steven
Sandford approached a Las Vegas police officer at the campaign stop to say he
wanted Trump’s autograph, but that he then tried to take the weapon.
A complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nevada
charges Sandford, 20, with an act of violence on restricted grounds. He was
denied bail during a court appearance later in the day. His court-appointed
attorney said he was living out of his car and in the country illegally after
overstaying a visa. Sandford has not entered a plea.
The arrest happened relatively quietly at a campaign stop
seen as peaceful compared to the mayhem at the presumptive Republican nominee’s
recent events in San Jose, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gregg
Donovan was among about 1,500 gathered Saturday to see Trump at the Treasure
Island casino on the Las Vegas Strip. For the event, he donned the top hat and
red jacket that made him recognizable in his former job as swanky Beverly
Hills’ official greeter for more than a decade.
Donovan said he didn’t know about the charge against
Sandford until he saw news reports. But he recognized him because the two had
stood in line together for nine hours waiting to get into the Trump event.
Sandford even held Donovan’s spot in line for a bathroom break. “I was No. 5,
and he was No. 4,” Donovan said.
They spoke, Donovan said, though Sandford didn’t say much
and seemed “strange.” Donovan didn’t elaborate on what made Sandford seem odd.After
waiting, they passed through metal detectors manned by Secret Service, police
and casino security officials.
Federal Magistrate Judge George Foley said in court Monday
that Sandford was a potential danger to the community and a flight risk.
Sandford wore leg irons and appeared to tremble during the hearing. Heather
Fraley, his assigned public defender, said Sandford appeared to be competent.
She said he hadn’t been diagnosed with a mental illness but that he has autism
and previously attempted suicide. He doesn’t have a job.
Sandford’s mother told court researchers that he was treated
for obsessive compulsive disorder and anorexia when he was younger, and that he
once ran away from a hospital in England, according to the public defender. Fraley
argued that Sandford should go to a halfway house because he didn’t have a
criminal history, but the judge said he should stay in detention ahead of a
July 5 court date.
Agents said Sandford told them he had been in the U.S. for
about a year and a half, lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, and drove to the San
Bernardino, California, area before coming to Las Vegas on June 16. Sandford
told officers he was convinced he would die in the assassination attempt. He
said he also reserved a ticket for a Trump rally in Phoenix, scheduled for later
Saturday, as a backup plan.
The criminal complaint said Sandford was arrested after grabbing
the handle of an officer’s gun while trying to remove it from a holster. Sandford
told authorities that he went to the Battlefield Vegas shooting range the day
before the rally and fired 20 rounds from a 9mm Glock pistol to learn how to
use it. Police detectives who visited the range spoke with an employee who
confirmed that he provided Sandford shooting lessons, according to the
complaint signed by Secret Service Special Agent Joseph Hall.
Source: CNN
Source: CNN
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