Secret Service officers arrested a Venezuelan man near the White House on Thursday evening after he allegedly said voices told him to kill President Donald Trump.
Officers approached Ronny Yordrix Guanipa Chrinos after seeing him acting suspiciously in a car parked on Constitution Avenue, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Friday in a news release.
The car had been reported stolen, and officers found three guns, including a rifle, and dozens of rounds of ammunition.
Chrinos faces weapons charges, along with charges of theft, receiving stolen property, and unauthorized use of a vehicle.
He remained in U.S. Marshals Service custody, and immigration officials requested that he be held for possible transfer to their custody. The department said he entered the country illegally through Texas in March 2024.
According to DHS, Chrinos allegedly told officers that voices in his head had directed him to travel to Washington and kill the president, and that he had weapons in the car.
The charges listed by the department include three counts each of unlawful transportation of a firearm, possessing unregistered firearms, and possessing unregistered ammunition. Other charges include carrying a rifle outside a home or business and carrying a pistol without a license.
The department’s list of charges did not include threatening the president.
“Thanks to our brave Secret Service officers, this illegal alien with three firearms in his vehicle was arrested near the White House before he could harm anyone,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in the release.
Border Patrol agents arrested Chrinos after he entered Texas in March 2024. He was later released during the Biden administration.
It remains unclear whether he had any legal representative who could speak on his behalf.
Spokespeople for the Secret Service and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NTD News, sister media of The Epoch Times.
In the release, Secret Service Director Sean Curran said the encounter showed the risks officers face as armed people continue to approach the White House complex.
“While our personnel are trained to respond to situations like this and we remain confident in our tactics, we are alarmed by the increase in threat cases that continue to arise,” Curran said.
The arrest follows other cases involving alleged threats against Trump and gunfire near the White House.
In July, 20-year-old Cody Lee Smith of Clarksburg, West Virginia, was charged with threatening Trump and federal agents. Prosecutors said Smith posted threats on Instagram and sent Donald Trump Jr. a message describing how he would kill his father.
In another case, a Tucson television station alerted authorities in October after receiving an email threatening bombings at the White House and other Washington locations. Jacob Aaron Hicks, 46, was charged with making an interstate threat to injure.
Two shootings near the White House in May also drew responses from Secret Service officers.
On May 4, officers confronted an armed person near the Washington Monument who ran and fired toward them. The officers returned fire, and the suspect was hospitalized. A juvenile bystander suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.
At the time, Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn said officials did not yet know whether that shooting was directed at Trump.
On May 23, another person pulled a weapon from a bag and began firing near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, according to the Secret Service. Agents shot the person, who later died. A bystander was also hit by gunshots.
Trump was inside the White House during that incident.
Curran said the agency would expand efforts to identify and investigate people making threats before they reach Washington, according to Friday’s DHS statement.
From NTD News
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