Man Accused of Chasing, Threatening Utah Senate Candidate and His Wife with Gun After Campaign Event
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Rick Bowmer/AP/Shutterstock Evan McMullin
A man has been charged with a misdemeanor after he was accused of following a Utah Senate candidate after a campaign event.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Senate candidate Evan McMullin filed court documents in Utah alleging he and his wife were followed from an April 10 campaign event by a man who "chased and threatened [them] at gunpoint" in a "large pickup truck."
In a victim impact statement obtained by the Tribune, 46-year-old McMullin claims that the man "aggressively followed" him and his wife on their drive home, at one point forcing their car into oncoming traffic before pulling alongside them and "pointing [a firearm] toward us in a threatening way."
The suspect — who has since been identified as 44-year-old Jack Aaron Whelchel by outlets including CNN — has been charged with a misdemeanor count of threatening with a dangerous weapon and an infraction of disorderly conduct, the Tribune reports. He has pleaded not guilty.
Elsewhere in McMullin's statement, CNN reports that the candidate noted Whelchel's social media pages, saying they discuss "guns being the tools with which to carry on this war against those he opposes politically." CNN adds that Whelchel's Facebook page "features several far-right memes."
Whelchel's attorney, Brixton Hakes, disputed McMullin's description of the event, telling CNN his client "never brandished a firearm," but adding that Whelchel instead placed a firearm on the center console of his truck.
It was Whelchel, his attorney said, who believed he was being followed by McMullin.
A hearing is scheduled for next month, according to CNN.
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McMullin is a former undercover CIA officer who later worked as chief policy director for the House Republican Conference on Capitol Hill. He left the Republican Party in 2016, after Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for president, and launched a last-minute presidential bid as an independent that same year.
He is currently running to unseat Republican Mike Lee in the Senate, and has been endorsed by the Utah Democratic Party, which decided not to nominate their own candidate this year and instead rally against Sen. Lee.
Speaking to PEOPLE earlier this year, McMullin said: "People are sick of the divisiveness. We've got mounting challenges in Utah — inflation is worse here than almost anywhere else, air quality is a real challenge especially during the summer, we're running out of water in an historic drought, we've got high cost of health care and on and on. Politics of division and extremism just don't solve them, and people are tired of it."
