RFK Jr. demands Secret Service protection after armed man is arrested at campaign spot, just miles from where his dad was assassinated at Ambassador Hotel

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. advocated for Secret Service protection after an armed gunman was arrested at his campaign site — just two miles from where his father was killed in 1968.

The Democratic presidential hopeful was speaking at a Hispanic Heritage Month event at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles on Friday evening when the suspect tried to approach him.

Wearing a US Marshal badge on a lanyard, the man tried to identify himself as a member of Kennedy’s security team.

He was seen wearing two shoulder holsters with loaded handguns with spare ammunition.

The incident occurred less than two miles from the former site of The Ambassador Hotel, 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, where RFK was shot and killed in June 1968 after winning the Democratic California presidential primary. The property was later redeveloped as the Robert F. Kennedy Schools after the hotel was demolished in 2005.

Kennedy shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, his gratitude for the quick-thinking actions of those around him who were able to intercept the suspect.

“I am very grateful that alert and quick-acting protectors from Gavin de Becker and Associates (GDBA) spotted and detained an armed man who attempted to approach me tonight during my Hispanic Heritage speech at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles,” Kennedy wrote .

“The man, who was wearing two shoulder holsters with loaded handguns and spare ammunition magazines, was wearing a U.S. Marshal badge on a lanyard and a federal ID with a belt clip. He identified himself as a member of my security detail.

“Armed GDBA team members moved quickly to isolate and detain the man until the LAPD arrived to make the arrest. I am also grateful to the LAPD for its quick response.

“I still hold out hope that President Biden will grant me Secret Service protection.

“I am the first presidential candidate in history to whom the White House has denied a request for protection.”

The incident occurred less than two miles from where his father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, was shot after claiming victory in the California primary, which he said was key to his own victory. bid for the presidency.

On June 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy had shared his excitement about his victory with about 2,000 supporters at a rally at the Ambassador Hotel and was taking a shortcut through the kitchen to a meeting with journalists when shots rang out.

He was shot several times, while five others in the crowded kitchen were also hit.

Kennedy lay flat on his back in the kitchen for a while, eyes open, as a crowd pressed around him. Some observers say they heard him say as he was lifted into a police ambulance, “Oh no. No. Do not’.

Pandemonium broke loose. Roosevelt Grier quickly grabbed the much smaller gunman, wrestled the gun from him and held him for police.

President Lyndon Johnson and others across the country, including Kennedy’s rival on the campaign trail, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, expressed shock and sadness. Johnson ordered all FBI resources thrown into the case and ordered Secret Service protection for key candidates.

Kennedy was first taken to Central Receiving Hospital, where a doctor said he was “practically dead” upon arrival.

Doctors there administered closed chest compressions, oxygen and adrenaline. “At first he had no pulse,” said a doctor who treated him, “then his pulse came back and we started hearing a heartbeat and he started breathing a little irregularly.”

A team of six surgeons began brain surgery at 3:12 a.m. that lasted about three hours and 40 minutes.

He died nearly 25 hours later after being shot at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Mayor Sam Yorty and Police Chief Tom Reddin told a news conference at the time that a Sirhan Sirhan, then 23, was traced through the .22 pistol used to injure Kennedy and five others less seriously, and that the identification was made through a brother, Nobility. Sirhan, from Pasadena.

Earlier this year, a California panel denied parole for Sirhan on the grounds that the 78-year-old inmate still has no insight into why he shot the senator and then-presidential candidate.

Sirhan’s attorney Angela Berry opposed the board’s position, saying Sirhan has shown he is aware of his actions, and that his psychiatrists have said for years that he is unlikely to pose a danger to society if he is released.

Two years ago, another California parole board had agreed with Berry and voted to release Sirhan, but Governor Gavin Newson overturned the decision in 2022.

Berry said she believes the new board members Wednesday were influenced by Newsom and by the attorneys representing Kennedy’s widow and some of his children — several of the slain politician’s relatives oppose Sirhan’s release, but not all.

In denying Sirhan’s freedom last year, the governor said the prisoner remains a threat to the public and has failed to take responsibility for a crime that changed American history.

“I feel like the administration has bowed to the political whim of the governor,” Berry said after the hearing at a federal prison in San Diego County.

Berry said the aging inmate also “wasn’t as articulate” when he spoke to the board this time. The board recommended that Sirhan do more work to better understand what makes someone a political assassin, she said.