The United States Department of Homeland Security confirmed that a 26-year-old Venezuelan national was arrested near the White House with three firearms in his vehicle. According to NBC News, the suspect told federal officers that voices in his head had instructed him to kill Donald Trump.
Secret Service agents located the individual, identified as Ronny Yordrix Guanipa Chirinos, on Thursday night inside a parked pickup truck along Constitution Avenue in Washington. Court filings show that he was asleep when agents first approached the vehicle to conduct a welfare check.
According to the affidavit, Chirinos used Google Translate to communicate with officers, stating that he was in possession of firearms and intended to turn them over to the government. Upon inspecting the vehicle, law enforcement personnel recovered an AR-15 rifle, a MAC-10 weapon, a Glock pistol, and an amount of ammunition.
Authorities stated that the vehicle had been reported stolen; however, Chirinos informed investigators that the truck belonged to his employer, who had loaned it to him. He further claimed that he purchased the weapons a month earlier and had been living inside the vehicle.
Chirinos faces several charges, including carrying dangerous weapons, possessing unregistered firearms and ammunition, unauthorized use of a vehicle, larceny, and receiving stolen property. Currently, federal authorities have not filed charges specifically related to an attempted assassination of the president.
The Department of Homeland Security stated that Chirinos had entered the United States unlawfully in 2024 and had been released after being detained by the border patrol. Secret Service Director Sean Curran praised the officers for de-escalating the situation while expressing concerns over rising threat investigations.
Source: NBC News
🌐
