Milwaukee man pleads guilty to carrying concealed pistol near Republican National Convention

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Milwaukee man has pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed pistol outside the Republican National Convention’s security perimeter last year.

Federal agents stopped Donnell Tinsley as he was walking near the convention’s security zone on the gathering’s first day in July 2024, according to a criminal complaint. Tinsley was wearing black pants and a ski mask and was carrying what the complaint described as a black tactical backpack. Agents found an AK-47-style pistol in the backpack.

The arrest came just two days after Thomas Matthew Crooks tried to assassinate Donald Trump during a campaign appearance in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was a presidential candidate at the time and went on to capture the White House in the November elections.

Online court records show Tinsley, now 22, pleaded guilty July 3 to a misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Marisabel Cabrera, a former Democratic state representative, sentenced him to 26 days time served.

Tinsley’s attorney, public defender Elizabeth Ellsworth-Kasch, declined comment when reached by phone Monday.