Leading third-party presidential candidate and heir to Camelot Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s house was broken into by an alleged stalker on Wednesday.
Kennedy’s campaign has repeatedly been denied U.S. Secret Service protection by President Joe Biden, whom Kennedy was originally challenging for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The suspect, a man, was arrested twice in the same day at the Los Angeles home of Kennedy Jr., police confirmed Thursday.
Police first responded to a call about the 28-year-old man trespassing at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Drake Madison, an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.
The man was served an emergency protective order and released, but he returned to the property later that day, prompting police to arrest him for violating the order. He remained in police custody Thursday.
Kennedy’s campaign said in a statement that the man climbed a fence at the candidate’s home but was detained by the candidate’s private security company. Kennedy was home at the time of both arrests, the campaign added.
The incidents come over a month after an armed man accused of impersonating a federal officer was arrested at a Kennedy campaign event.
Kennedy and his campaign have repeatedly argued that he needs Secret Service protection but have been denied. Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, were both assassinated.
In September, Kennedy’s then-campaign manager wrote to President Joe Biden urging him to provide Secret Service protection to the candidate.
The campaign’s statement said Kennedy’s private security company was already aware of the trespasser, whom the campaign called an “obsessed individual.” The company had alerted the Secret Service about him and shared “alarming communications” he had sent to the candidate, the campaign said.
Protection for presidential candidates is not up to the U.S. Secret Service and is instead determined by the Department of Homeland Security in consultation with a congressional advisory committee. While major candidates for president or vice president can get Secret Service protection, the vast majority of primary candidates do not.
The campaign said it sent a new request for protection to DHS on Wednesday, its third formal request so far. DHS did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment Thursday from The Associated Press.
A law enforcement official on Thursday said the Secret Service does not monitor people it is not actively protecting, like Kennedy.
When a request for protection comes in, the official said, the service does an assessment, but it stops monitoring when that is complete. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the situation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, said Kennedy was not being assessed at the time of Wednesday’s incidents.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article