Arizona law enforcement officials arrested a man on Thursday after conducting a manhunt for a suspect who threatened to kill former President Donald Trump. The manhunt came on the same day the former president was giving remarks at Arizona’s southern border with Mexico.
In a post on Facebook, the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office explained that 66-year-old Ronald Lee Syvrud was arrested after a “felony stop” was conducted by units on the scene at roughly 2:16 p.m.
“Syvrud was taken into custody without further incident at approximately 2:30 pm,” law enforcement officials said. “Syvrud was subsequently booked into the Cochise County Jail on a felony warrant from Graham County (AZ) for Failure to Register as a Sex Offender and two counts of threatening for this case.”
The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office noted that Syvrud made threatening social media posts against Trump on Tuesday and Wednesday. Law enforcement officials said that Tuesday’s social media post “contained language that indicated bodily harm to the candidate.”
According to the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office, Syvrud previously had outstanding warrants from Wisconsin for driving under the influence and failing to appear in court for driving under the influence. The 66-year-old suspect also had outstanding warrants in Graham County, Arizona, for a hit-and-run incident and felony failure to register as a sex offender.
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While speaking about illegal immigration and the Biden-Harris administration’s border crisis during a campaign stop at Arizona’s southern border on Thursday, Trump indicated that he was not aware of reports that law enforcement officials were conducting a manhunt in the area for Syvrud, according to The Post Millennial.
Asked by a reporter whether he was notified before his arrival of the manhunt in Cochise County, which is the same county where Trump was delivering remarks at the border, Trump said, “I’ve heard it’s dangerous, but I also have a job to do. I heard it’s very dangerous. I haven’t heard about that. They probably want to keep it from me.”
Trump later added, “I’m not that surprised, and the reason is because I want to do things that are very bad for the bad guys.”
The former president also explained that he has “great respect” for the Secret Service despite widespread criticism of the agency for security failures that allowed would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks to fire multiple shots at Trump at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump said that while “mistakes were made,” he still had respect for the Secret Service and believed that the agency would “learn from the mistakes.”
