Police and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agents have arrested an Arizona man for allegedly making expletive-laden death threats against President-elect Donald Trump and his family, as well as attempting to illegally purchase firearms. The suspect, Manuel Tamayo-Torres, also posted photos from a Trump rally in Glendale in August, according to court documents. The rally took place less than six weeks after the first assassination attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Tamayo-Torres has a 2003 conviction for assault causing great bodily injury in California, for which he served a six-year prison sentence. Additionally, in July 2023, his ex-wife obtained a restraining order against him in Arizona, Fox News reported Thursday. Tamayo-Torres’ felony conviction and active restraining order prohibited him from owning firearms. However, on November 13 and again on November 15, 2023, he visited a Shooters World store in Phoenix, Arizona, and filled out the 4473 form for a background check.
Although his attempts were marked as “delayed” and “denied,” prosecutors now contend that he lied on the forms. He allegedly falsely claimed that he had never been convicted of a felony and that he was not the subject of a restraining order from a child or intimate partner. Phoenix police later discovered that on Facebook, Tamayo-Torres posted a series of videos in which he claimed that “Individual 1,” described in court documents as “a former president and current president-elect,” trafficked his children.
A low-resolution image from court documents that allegedly shows Manuel Tamayo-Torres posing with a gun. (U.S. District Court Southern District of California)
Trump, who served one term as president, left office and has been the president-elect again after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Day. Tamayo-Torres alleged that the incoming president had “[W]hite privilege” and conspired to kill his daughter and traffic his other children. It was unclear from the court documents whether he actually had any children. “You’re Caucasian nothing,” Tamayo-Torres allegedly ranted in a Facebook video posted on Thursday. “You’ll earn nothing, Aryan money, that’s all you have. You’re a low life scum, I’ll spit in your f—ing face motherf—er, and if they give me a chance, I’m going to f—ing bury you myself.”
Police also discovered another video, posted days earlier, in which Tamayo-Torres allegedly brandished “what appears to be a white AR-15-style rifle” with a 30-round magazine. In the video, he accused the president-elect of “touching his minor children” and claimed that the incoming first family and Secret Service would all go to prison.
As detectives examined his Facebook account, they discovered images from August 23 at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, where Trump held a rally that night. They also found other photos of Tamayo-Torres holding firearms, none of which he was legally allowed to own. Tamayo-Torres was arrested in Southern California and is expected to be extradited back to Arizona to face federal charges, Fox reported.
