Republican bundled away mid-speech after noticing someone from the crowd
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6th November 2016, 1:11 am
DONALD Trump was bundled off stage by his security guards last night amid fears of a gunman at a rally.
The 70-year-old was half an hour into a speech when an audience
member shouted: “He’s got a gun” and indicated a shaven-headed man in
the crowd.
Two suited secret service officers pulled the Presidential hopeful
away from the microphone and rushing him backstage in Reno, Nevada.
Other secret service agents pinned the man, later identified as
Reno-native and registered Republican Austyn Crites, to the floor.
Crites, 33, was then manhandled out of the room as heavily-armed police
officers flooded into the room. He has since been released.
A Secret Service spokesman later said that after a “thorough” search no gun was found in the venue or on the Crytes.
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| AP:Associated Press 5 |
Speaking to The Guardian,
Crites said he had worked his way to the front of the crowd to hold up a
sign reading “Republicans against Trump” which he had printed off the
internet.
The crowd jeered after he raised the sign, Crites said, but then “all
of a sudden people next to me are starting to get violent; they’re
grabbing at my arm, trying to rip the sign out of my hand.”
At that point Crites claims the crowd “piled on” and he heard someone
in the crowd shout “something about a gun” after he hit the floor.
Crites described the Republican nominee for the Presidency as “a textbook version of a dictator and a fascist”.
He also said he did not blame the crowd for their actions: “The people who attached me – I’m not blaming them. I’m blaming Donald Trump’s hate rhetoric.”
The Republican tycoon reappeared at the Reno Convention Center
several minutes after Crites had been removed to cheers from fans,
declaring: “Nobody said it was going to be easy for us, but we will never ever be stopped.”
He went on: “I want to thank the Secret Service, they don’t get
enough credit, they are amazing people.” Trump was spending his final
Saturday before election day dashing to four key states in three different time zones to make a closing pitch to voters before Tuesday’s election.
Thank you Reno, Nevada.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2016
NOTHING will stop us in our quest to MAKE AMERICA SAFE AND GREAT AGAIN! #AmericaFirsthttps://t.co/N8EFAQDhnt pic.twitter.com/OoM3hsDWS1