By Mark A. Kellner
New York Post
LAS VEGAS — Vem Miller, the armed suspect arrested Saturday near the Trump rally in Coachella, California, seemed to have kept a low profile in his former Las Vegas neighborhood, where neighbors said they only saw the one-time Nevada Assembly candidate a handful of times in his years of living on the block.
Miller, 49, reportedly lived with an older couple believed to be his parents in a rental home in Lavender Heights Court, a small cul-de-sac in the Astoria Trails South gated community before they all moved out in 2022 — and allegedly left the place like a dump, neighbors told The Post on Sunday.
“I recognize him, but I only saw him once or twice in the years they were there,” said one long-term resident who was shown a picture of Miller but didn’t want to give his name after being told his ex-neighbor was arrested on a firearms charge.
Another neighbor said that when Miller and his presumed relatives left, the property owner had to renovate the 5-bedroom, 3-bath two-story home estimated to be worth $529,454.00, according to Realtor.com.
“The place was trashed, the backyard had sh-t all over it, they let weeds grow,” said the 39-year-old neighbor, a pest control business owner who only gave his first name, Justin.
Miller and the others reportedly moved out of the neighborhood the same year the would-be politico came in third in the GOP primary for the Nevada Assembly race.
But before that, Justin said he “never really saw” Miller.
Both the exterminator and the neighbor who wanted to remain anonymous, said Miller’s car had Canadian license plates, possibly from British Columbia.
The majority of residents of the gated community on the west side of Nevada didn’t know the gun-touting suspect who lived at number 8100, since they moved into the middle-class development after Miller moved out.
Residents described the general neighborhood as middle-class and composed of working families. But just outside its gates, gun violence erupted Sunday as The Post was conducting interviews.
A Post reporter observed a man firing a weapon at a car in a parking lot across from the gated community in which Miller lived.
The gunplay took place in an ungated community across North El Capitan Way from Miller’s former development. A man walked up to a slowly moving sedan, banged his arm on it a couple of times, then pointed a gun and fired at least four shots.
Astoria Trails South residents said the neighborhood, though gated, is transient. A lot of the homes are rentals, as Miller’s was and is.
Miller was arrested at a security checkpoint outside Donald Trump’s rally Saturday after sheriff deputies found a cache of fake passports and driver’s licenses, a shotgun, a loaded handgun and a high-capacity magazine in his car, officials said.
He was booked on weapons charges and released after posting $5,000 bail. The Secret Service said that the former president wasn’t in any danger at his Coachella rally.
But Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco accused Miller of wanting to hurt or kill Trump, saying his deputies “prevented the third assassination attempt” against the Republican nominee at a press conference Sunday.
Miller called the allegations “complete bullsh-t” in an interview with the Southern California News Group and said he’s a Trump supporter who was unaware of the different gun laws between Nevada and California.
The Secret Service thinks it’s unlikely Miller was trying to assassinate the 45th president and the FBI is not probing the matter as an attempt on his life, sources told The Post.
The Post was unable to reach Miller at his reported mobile number, and text messages were not returned.
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