The 49-year-old man is suspected of weapons offenses and possession of a high-capacity magazine. He had a forged admission ticket and was driving a black car with "homemade" license plates when he was stopped. In the chaos in the car, both a shotgun and a pistol were found, as well as several passports and driver's licenses issued in different names.
When he was stopped, he claimed to be a journalist, but it is unclear whether he had received any form of accreditation to the election meeting.
Shortly after the arrest, he was released after paying a bail of 5,000 dollars. He is scheduled to appear in court again in January next year.
At a press conference on Sunday afternoon with the local police, Sheriff Chad Bianco in Riverside County did not want to speculate about what the man may have planned or motivated or why he had weapons in the car.
We know that we stopped something bad from happening, and what kind of bad it is is irrelevant, said Bianco, who had previously referred to the incident as a possible "murder attempt".
The 49-year-old had passed a security check but was stopped at a closer meeting Trump was to hold later that evening. To get to the meeting, he would have had to pass another check, manned by the Secret Service. According to the same agency, Trump's security was never threatened.
