Bloke With A Sign Revealed As The Cause Of Today’s Trump Security Scare

Shortly after Donald Trump was hurried off stage by security staff during a campaign event in Nevada, reports circulated the security scare was caused by a member of the crowd brandishing a gun.

There was no gun. Instead, there was 33-year-old Austyn Crites. There was his sign, bearing the slogan “Republicans Against Trump.” And there was apparently someone who yelled “gun” regardless.

Speaking to The Guardian after being turfed out of the Reno, Nevada venue, Crites said he’d been unfairly targeted by other crowd members for his peaceful protest.

Crites said “all of a sudden people next to me are starting to get violent; they’re grabbing at my arm, trying to rip the sign out of my hand.”  Soon after, “there were people wrenching on my neck [and] they could have strangled me to death.”

Austin told me he was punched, kicked. Someone grabbed his testicles and he his neck was in a chokehold. He said he feared for his life.

— Paul Lewis (@PaulLewis) November 6, 2016

It was during that commotion Crites said he heard someone say “something about a gun,” and a few moments later, Trump was whisked away. Police on-site cuffed Crites, subjected him to a background check, and released him shortly after.

FWIW, Crites identifies as a GOP supporter, but maintains Trump is “a textbook version of a dictator and a fascist”. He doesn’t hold the incident against Trump diehards at the rally, though. Instead, he blames Trump’s “hate rhetoric.”

Three more days to go until the election. Three. More. Days.