Court documents: Man accused of threatening to shoot VP Pence while he was in Tucson
Vice President Mike Pence (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Aubree Milks)
PHOENIX - Federal officials are accusing a man of threatening Vice President Mike Pence during his visit to Tucson in August.
According to court documents obtained by FOX 10, the incident happened on August 11, as Vice President Pence visited Tucson. At around 11:00 a.m., a U.S. Secret Service Service Agent called for assistance at a vehicle checkpoint, where multiple witnesses told authorities that a man was walking to a rideshare vehicle while threatening to shoot the Vice President.
"During the incident, the male subject pulled a handgun from his chest pack, pointed the handgun up in the air, and waved it around in the air before getting into the vehicle and departing the resort," read a portion of the court documents.
Investigators say the suspect, identified as Rene Christopher Bracamonte, also made a profanity-laden Facebook live video in the valet area of the Westin La Paloma resort, where Vice President Pence was attending an event.
"Supposedly that is the Vice President here. If I wanted to, I could smoke the [expletive]," Bracamonte alleged said, according to court documents. "[Expletive] the Vice President, [expletive] the President, [expletive] the PD."
officials say surveillance video taken by the resort confirmed that Bracamonte filmed the video shortly before making threats to shoot Vice President Pence.