Police Tackle, Tase Man at Trump Rally in Pennsylvania
A chaotic scene—and police intervention—played out during Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on Friday, just 75 miles from the town of Butler, where a would-be assassin shot at the former president last month, killing one rallygoer and injuring two others.
As Trump spoke onstage, a man in the audience attempted to enter the cordoned-off press pen, according to multiple reports and videos from the scene. The individual was able to breach a barrier of bicycle racks surrounding the pen, and was climbing a riser on which reporters and cameramen were stationed when he was tackled and subdued by security officers and law enforcement officials, who eventually tased him.
The unnamed man was subsequently taken into custody, the Johnstown Police Department told the Daily Beast on Friday night, but has subsequently been released. No information concerning his identity or potential motive has yet been made public; speculation on social media has presented him as either an incensed Trump supporter or a radicalized counter-protester. Pick your poison!