A woman protesting in support of former President Donald Trump is arrested by court officers for getting into an altercation with a pedestrian and brandishing a knife outside the District Attorney’s office in New York, Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A Donald Trump supporter was taken into custody after allegedly pulling a knife on two adults and two young children while protesting the former president’s possible indictment at a New York courthouse.
Angelica Rucker was on the corner of an intersection in front of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse at around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday holding a sign that expressed unequivocal support for the former president, who is facing legal challenges in multiple jurisdictions.
In Manhattan, District Attorney Alvin Bragg has convened a grand jury to consider whether to indict Trump on criminal charges. The exact nature of the investigation has not been made public, but it is presumably about alleged hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who claimed she had a sexual encounter with the president while he was married to his current wife Melania Trump.
“I’m With Trump Are You?” the sign said, according to a statement from court spokesperson Lucian Chalfen.
“Two passersby, one with two small children, with one in a stroller, passed the individual holding the sign,” Chalfen said in a statement emailed to Law&Crime. “A verbal argument ensued between the parties.”
Chalfen told Law&Crime that the two people appeared to be walking by Rucker at the time and were not part of any protest.
As the confrontation appeared to escalate, court officers “began to converge on the area to investigate the commotion.”
At that point, Rucker “pulled a knife from her right side belt hip area and began menacing one of the complainants with the knife as the verbal confrontation continued,” the statement said.
The responding officers drew their guns and ordered Rucker to drop the knife. She complied and was taken into custody.
Charges against Rucker are pending, according to Chalfen.
Trump has posted tirades to his Truth Social account erroneously predicting his impending indictment, calling for protests and warning of “death and destruction” should he be brought up on criminal charges.
On Friday, Bragg’s office received a threatening letter in an envelope containing a what police described as a suspicious white powder.
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