FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Brad Parscale, the former campaign manager for Donald Trump who was replaced by the President less than four months before the 2020 election, was armed with a gun and threatening to harm himself at his Fort Lauderdale home on Sunday afternoon, according to police and campaign officials.
Police responded to a home in the upscale Seven Isles neighborhood around 4 p.m. in reference to a man barricaded inside a house. When officers arrived on the scene, they made contact with the woman, the man’s wife, who had called 911. She told police that her husband was armed, had access to multiple firearms inside the house and was threatening to kill himself.
Parscale’s wife Candice told police that her husband made suicidal comments in recent days and had a physical altercation with her, according to an incident report released Monday. A responding officer noticed several bruises on both of her arms that she said came from that altercation.
Records confirm that the property in the 2300 block of Desota Drive in Fort Lauderdale is owned by Parscale, 44, and his wife. Local 10 spoke to neighbors who also said it was the home of the former advisor to the President.
Fort Lauderdale Police said that man was transported to Broward Health Medical Center placed under the Baker Act, which allows anyone deemed to be a threat to themselves or others to be detained for 72 hours for psychiatric evaluation.
Police have not confirmed if any shots were fired. They did determine that no one else was in the home.
A statement from President Trump’s Campaign Communications Director, Tim Murtaugh, states: “Brad Parscale is a member of our family and we all love him. We are ready to support him and his family in any way possible.”
Parscale was demoted from the campaign manager’s post in July but remained part of the campaign, helping run its digital operation.
Standing 6′8″ and with a distinctive beard, Parscale had become a celebrity to Trump supporters and would frequently pose for photos and sign autographs ahead of campaign rallies. But Trump had begun to sour on him earlier this year as Parscale attracted a wave of media attention that included focus on his seemingly glitzy lifestyle on the Florida coast that kept him far from campaign headquarters in Virginia.
Over the summer, he hyped a million ticket requests for the president’s comeback rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that ended up drawing just 6,000 people. A furious Trump was left staring at a sea of empty seats and, weeks later, promoted Bill Stepien to campaign manager.
Parscale was originally hired to run Trump’s 2016 campaign by Jared Kushner, the president’s powerful son-in-law. While the Republican National Committee owns most of the campaign’s data, voter modeling and outreach tools, Parscale ran most of the microtargeted online advertising that Trump aides believe was key to his victory four years ago.
Under the state’s Red Flag Law, officials could ask a judge to bar Parscale from possessing any weapons for up to a year.
Assignment desk editor Wilson Louis and the Associated Press contributed to this story.