Ronald Lee Syvrud captured during Arizona manhunt after ‘threatening to kill Donald Trump’ as former prez tours border
A MAN who allegedly made a terrifying threat to kill Donald Trump on the same day the presidential candidate was in town to tour the border has been taken into custody following an extensive manhunt.
Cops have confirmed that they found 66-year-old convicted sex offender Ronald Lee Syvrud, who allegedly threatened the former president via social media.
The manhunt was underway early Thursday morning in Cochise County, the southeastern part of Arizona, which is where Trump gave remarks at a campaign event.
Hours after the search began, the sheriff's office confirmed to The U.S. Sun that the suspect was in custody.
"We are confirming he was taken into custody without incident at 14:30 hours today," the sheriff's office said.
Four hours after the suspect was taken into custody, the sheriff's department posted a statement on Facebook elaborating on the arrest in full detail.
The sheriff's office confirmed that the message in question "contained language that indicated bodily harm to the candidate."
"On Wednesday, August 22, 2024, a second social media post was identified that again contained threats toward candidate Trump from suspect Syvrud. 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," the statement continued.
"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.
"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. Syvrud remains in custody pending further court adjudication."
The department ended the statement by thanking everyone who helped find the suspect and said the arrest was "a testament to the strong working relationship and coordination between local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies."
Earlier in the day, the sheriff's office had asked the public for help finding Syvrud.
The visit comes just one day before the GOP candidate plans to hold a rally in Glendale, Arizona.
The looming threat on the former president's life comes a little over a month after he was shot in the ear at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
During the rally, 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at the business mogul as he was on stage speaking about border crossings during his leadership.
When Trump slightly turned his head to look at a chart displayed on the screen detailing the border crossings, Crooks fired at the former president, narrowly missing his head.
"In order to see the chart, I started to, like this, turn to my right, and was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I’m lucky I didn’t do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard, on my right ear," Trump recounted during his speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
BORDER DISPUTES
Trump's visit to the Arizona border is one of several he's made since he became president in 2016.
The former president has long advocated for increased border protection and heavily scrutinized the Biden administration for its lax stance on border security.
During his campaign for the 2024 presidential election, Trump has specifically targeted Kamala Harris for her open border views.
"You know, she wants open borders," Trump said during his Wednesday rally in Asheboro, North Carolina.
"If she became president, in four years, you'd have 60 to 70 million people from all over the world, and it's not just South America.
"And remember, they're releasing them from their jails and their prisons.
"They're coming out of jails and prisons and mental institutions and insane asylums. Then we have hundreds and probably thousands of terrorists that have come into our country," he added.
Donald Trump Butler Rally Shooting Latest
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet while speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
Donald Trump was not critically injured and is expected to make a full recovery. He has since made his first public appearance after the shooting.
- July 13: Trump was grazed by a bullet from an AR-15-style rifle 430 feet away from where he was delivering remarks to supporters in Butler.
- Trump shared that the bullet tore a piece of his right ear.
- The shooting left rally-goer Corey Comperatore dead and two others injured.
- The FBI identified the would-be assassin as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
- Crooks was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
- July 14: President Joe Biden urged for a cooldown in politics following the attempt on his predecessor's life.
- Biden launched an independent review into the rally's shooting and to assess what went wrong.
- July 15: GOP delegates gather at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee to formally name Donald Trump as the party's presidential nominee.
- In a Truth Social post, Trump announced Ohio senator JD Vance as his vice president pick.
- Trump makes his first public appearance since the attempt on his life during the Republican National Convention.
- The Republican presidential candidate, 78, walks into the Fiserv Forum visibly emotional with a white bandage on his right ear.
Trump's running mate, JD Vance, backed up the former president's claims saying they will send a "message to all the criminal illegals."
"President Trump and I have a message to all the criminal illegals who flooded across Kamala's wide open southern border: Pack your bags, because in six months, you are going home," he proclaimed.
The former president scrutinized the Democratic Party for not addressing the border issue during the Democratic National Convention.
I hadn't heard [about the threat], but I'm not that surprised. The reason is because I want to do things that are very bad for the bad guys.
Donald Trump
“It’s like they’re having a party. They don’t mention the border. All they do is make up lies about me,” Trump said as he called into Fox & Friends on Thursday morning.
Trump has previously criticized Harris for failing to fulfill an assignment President Joe Biden gave her in 2021 to work with Central American countries to tackle the “root causes” of migration.
The former president deemed the Democratic nominee as the "border czar."
“Under border czar Harris, illegal aliens are pouring in by the millions and millions and millions,” Trump said during a rally in July.
The White House immediately rebutted Trump's nickname for Harris, claiming the vice president's mandate was not "the border."
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“That was never a term designated to her. And the goal of her work was not necessarily the border or border policy but looking at root causes, which she successfully did,” Representative Veronica Escobar said, according to .
“And I think it’s always important to point out Republican obstruction at every turn when it came to immigration or border policy.”