Armed felon arrested for threatening to kill Trump attended rally weeks after Butler assassination attempt
Arizona suspect Manuel Tamayo-Torres faces five federal charges for alleged threats to Trump, lies on Form 4473
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have arrested an Arizona man for allegedly making expletive-laden death threats against President-elect Donald Trump and his family and attempting to illegally buy guns.
The suspect, Manuel Tamayo-Torres, also posted photos from a Trump rally in August in Glendale, according to court documents – a rally that took place less than six weeks after the first assassination attempt on Trump's life in Butler, Pennsylvania.
He has a 2003 conviction of assault causing great bodily injury in California, for which he received a six-year prison sentence. Then in July 2023, his ex-wife obtained a restraining order against him in Arizona.
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Donald Trump takes the stage during a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena on Aug. 23, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. A man arrested this week for allegedly threatening the president-elect's life, Manuel Tamayo-Torres, was also in attendance at the rally. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
His felony history and the active restraining order both banned him from owning firearms, but on Nov. 13 and again on Nov. 15, 2023, he went to a Shooters World store in Phoenix, Arizona, and filled out the 4473 form for a background check.
Those attempts were "delayed" and "denied" – but prosecutors now say he lied on the forms. He allegedly claimed he had never been convicted of a felony and that he was not the subject of a restraining order from a child or intimate partner.
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A low-resolution image from court documents that allegedly shows Manuel Tamayo-Torres posing with a gun. (U.S. District Court Southern District of California)
Phoenix police then discovered that on Facebook, Tamayo-Torres posted a series of videos where he claimed "Individual 1," who is never named but is described in court documents as "a former president and current president-elect," trafficked his children.
Trump, who was president for one term, left office and has been the president-elect once again since defeating Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Day.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tamayo-Torres claimed the incoming president has "[W]hite privilege" and conspired to kill his daughter and traffic his other children. It was not immediately clear from court documents that he had any children.
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Former President Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena on Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
"You're Caucasian nothing," Tamayo-Torres allegedly ranted in a Facebook video posted on Thursday. "You'll earn nothing, Aryan money, that's all you have. You're a low life scum, I'll spit in your f---ing face motherf---er, and if they give me a chance, I'm going to f---ing bury you myself."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police also found another video, posted days earlier, in which Tamayo-Torres allegedly held "what appears to be a white AR-15-style rifle" with a 30-round magazine, accused the president-elect of "touching his minor children" and said the incoming first family and Secret Service would all go to prison.
Former President Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents after being shot at a campaign rally, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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As detectives probed his Facebook account, they found images from Aug. 23 at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale. Trump held a rally there that night. They also found other photos of the suspect holding firearms, none of which he could legally own.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tamayo-Torres was arrested in Southern California and is expected to be sent back to Arizona to face his federal charges there.