A man armed with two pistols and impersonating a U.S. marshal was arrested Friday, Sept. 15 at a National Hispanic Heritage Month event where Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy spoke, authorities said.
The Los Angeles Police Department received a call around 4:30 p.m. regarding a disturbance at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in the 4400 block of West Eighth Street in the Mid-Wilshire Area, LAPD Officer Drake Madison said.
Upon their arrival, they located a man who was impersonating a U.S. marshal and claimed to be part of Kennedy’s security team. Officers arrested him and took the man to the LAPD’s Wilshire Division Station, Madison said.
“He didn’t threaten anyone and no one was injured,” Madison said.
Police said the suspect was wearing a U.S. Marshals Service badge on a lanyard and was armed with two pistols.
“He’ll probably be booked on some sort of a gun charge, but we won’t know until tomorrow,” Madison said.
Madison said the FBI was contacted and it was decided the LAPD would handle the arrest and the investigation.
Kennedy thanked his security staff and the LAPD “for its rapid response” in a post on X, in which he said the man’s pistols were loaded and that he had spare ammunition.
“I’m still entertaining a hope that President Biden will allow me Secret Service protection. I am the first presidential candidate in history to whom the White House has denied a request for protection,” Kennedy said in the post.
I’m very grateful that alert and fast-acting protectors from Gavin de Becker and Associates (GDBA) spotted and detained an armed man who attempted to approach me at my Hispanic Heritage speech at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles tonight. The man, wearing two shoulder… pic.twitter.com/vvJc0Gtk4o
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) September 16, 2023
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The candidate’s father, U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel, less than 2 miles east of the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.
Source: Orange County Register
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