RENO, Nev. (AP) – Donald Trump was rushed off stage during a rally in Reno, Nev., on Saturday night by Secret Service agents, but he returned to finish his speech.
Some people in the crowd reported seeing a man with a gun, but their accounts could not be confirmed. No weapon was found but a man was in custody and being questioned, CNN reported, citing unnamed Secret Service officials.
“We will never be stopped, never ever be stopped,” said Trump when he arrived back on stage at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. “I want to thank the Secret Service; these guys are fantastic.”
Trump’s rally was his third stop–and state–of the day, and his rhetoric in Reno risked further inflaming Latinos and Asian Americans who plan to vote in Nevada on Election Day. He told graphic stories of murders committed by immigrants in the country illegally.
“A Trump administration will end this nightmare of violence,” he told the crowd.
Moments later, Secret Service agents surrounded Trump and rushed him off the stage. Chaos erupted in the crowd just in front of him. Heavily armed police and what appeared to be men wearing helmets leaped over barricades into the crowd.
Reporters traveling with Trump were not close enough to see exactly what was happening in the commotion, which went on for about six or seven minutes before the campaign ordered the journalists to leave the convention hall.
Uniformed officers wearing helmets and carrying what appeared to be machine guns were next to the media.
After several more minutes, reporters were ushered back into the hall and Trump resumed speaking.
With early signs of a surge in early voting by Latinos in Nevada, Trump alleged earlier in the rally, without evidence, that election officials in Las Vegas had left polls open beyond closing time so that Democrats could be bused in to vote against him.
“Folks, it’s a rigged system,” the Republican presidential nominee told a few thousand cheering supporters. “It’s a rigged system, and we’re going to beat it.”
Trump’s allegation came as he was devoting crucial hours of the campaign’s final weekend traveling to Nevada and Colorado, battlegrounds where Latino voters pose a serious challenge for a candidate whose signature proposal is a wall to keep Mexicans out of the U.S.
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