A Centre County resident was arrested Friday after being accused of threatening violence against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump the day before his rally at Penn State.
Paul J. Gavenonis, 74, of Spring Township, was charged with misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats and disorderly conduct.
While purchasing a parking pass at the university’s transportation office, the registered Democrat described climbing to the top of a tall building and said “you can’t take a gun in or the students will see it,” university police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
Gavenonis, who the Centre County Public Defender Office said uses she/her pronouns, then made a “racking gun motion” with her hands, a detective wrote in the charging document.
“I hate Donald Trump,” Gavenonis was quoted by police as saying. “I’d like to shoot that guy.”
The transportation office staffer who processed the parking pass purchase expressed alarm and concern at the statement and called the police. Gavenonis was interviewed Friday evening by university police and the Secret Service inside the Pattee Library.
After being asked if she made a comment about wishing Trump would be shot or if she could do it, police wrote that Gavenonis said “probably, yeah.”
“Frankly, I hope somebody would get him,” police quoted Gavenonis as saying after they arrested her. She also told investigators she had a rifle inside her residence.
It’s unclear from the affidavit whether Gavenonis was attempting to purchase a parking pass for Saturday’s rally or another reason. A message was left with university police.
Gavenonis was arraigned Friday night by District Judge Steven Lachman, who denied bail. She is incarcerated at the Centre County Correctional Facility.
No defense lawyer was listed. The Centre County Public Defender Office was not appointed to represent Gavenonis as of Monday afternoon.
Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
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