An armed man impersonating a U.S. marshal was arrested at a campaign event for Democratic presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Washington Post reports. Police were told Friday about a man with “a loaded gun in a shoulder holster and a badge stating he was a U.S. marshal,” said a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department. Officers arrested Adrian Paul Aispuro, 44. Kennedy posted a message about the incident on X, thanking his private security detail from Gavin de Becker and Associates, who first “spotted and detained an armed man” who attempted to approach him during a campaign speech timed to Hispanic Heritage Month at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.
Kennedy’s campaign said the man claimed to be part of the candidate’s security team. The man told Kennedy’s private security “that he needed to be taken to the candidate immediately.” The security detail saw that he had a gun, surrounded him and notified the police. The suspect’s brother, Raymond Aispuro, said he drove Adrian Aispuro to what he assumed was a private security job. Adrian Aispuro had previously worked as an emergency medical technician and in private security but was currently unemployed, the brother said. After Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles after winning the 1968 Democratic California primary, Congress expanded Secret Service protection to major presidential party candidates and their spouses. Kennedy has complained about his lack of a Secret Service detail, though many candidates in modern presidential primaries never receive such protection because they are not deemed “major” candidates. The Secret Service typically provides full-time protection only to “major party candidates” who meet certain polling and campaign thresholds, and only within a year of Election Day.