By Staff Reporter |
A man wanted for multiple offenses was arrested Thursday over threatening to assassinate Donald Trump during his visit.
Ronald Lee Syvrud, 66, had multiple active warrants: failing to register as a sex offender, a DUI and failure to appear, and a hit and run. Syvrud was added to Wisconsin’s sex offender registry over 20 years ago for sexual assault of a child. Adding to those crimes, Syvrud has been arrested for issuing several threats against Trump.
Under the name “Rudy Lee,” Syvrud posted on Facebook that he planned to shoot Trump with a revolver while the presidential candidate traveled through Cochise County as part of his two-day visit.
The Post Millennial discovered the one post and Syvrud’s several aliased social media accounts, but the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office said in its press release that there was another post containing a threat. Syvrud’s Facebook profile has since been deleted.
“Trump is going through here tomorrow and going to Naco, AZ to the port of entry to Mexico. There’s a bar right there called the Gay 90s. Noooo. It’s not a gay bar. Dawn and I will be there early. I bought a scope for my 44 revolver. Unlike that dweeb that missed. I won’t. Maybe I’m joking. Or am I. Wink, wink.”
In earlier posts, Syvrud said he’d wished Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, hadn’t missed. Syvrud would later claim the assassination was faked.
“I give the shooter an A- for effort. Would have gotten an A+ if he succeeded,” said Syvrud. “By the way, the kid was a registered Republican. Got to love it.”
The only reason Trump didn’t die from Crooks’ shot at last month’s rally was because he turned his head for an instant to look up at a screen by the crowd. One of the rally attendees died from a gunshot wound, and two others besides Trump were injured.
It remains unclear why the rooftop on which Crooks lied with a perfect line of sight to Trump wasn’t secured during the rally.
Earlier this week, Trump hosted his first outdoor rally since the attempt on his life. The presidential candidate spoke behind bulletproof glass.
Syvrud’s other political posts focused on his dislike for the Republican Party as a whole.
The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) apprehended Syvrud within hours of notifying the public that they were looking for him.
CCSO had issued a statement on Tuesday that Syvrud was apprehended without incident.
“As part of the operations plan in place for the visit of candidate Donald Trump on today’s date, locating this subject was a priority. Intelligence developed led to a possible location in the St. David area and multiple units deployed to the location,” stated CCSO. “At approximately 2:16 pm, units on the scene observed the suspect traveling outside of the identified location, and a felony stop was conducted. Syvrud was taken into custody without further incident at approximately 2:30 pm.”
Trump’s Thursday visit consisted of a press conference at the border in Cochise County. Trump told reporters that he wasn’t made aware of the assassination threat prior to his heading to Arizona, let alone his Thursday outing along the border.
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