Fuller picture emerges of man arrested at Trump rally

Published 9:26 am Wednesday, June 22, 2016

LAS VEGAS — A British man accused of telling authorities that he wanted to kill Donald Trump at a rally was unemployed, living out of his car and had been treated in the past for obsessive compulsive disorder and anorexia, authorities and others say.

Court statements and accounts Tuesday from a family friend in England offered a complex picture of 20-year-old suspect Michael Steven Sandford, who was arrested Saturday in a Las Vegas casino where the Republican candidate was speaking.

People who knew Sandford told The Associated Press he was intelligent and said signs of his Asperger’s syndrome became more obvious as he got older.

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“I just didn’t imagine that he would do what he was doing,” said Julie Debnam, 59, whose son attended primary school with Sandford and often spent time with him. “I still think he has a lot of low esteem. He needs help rather than going to prison, basically.”