LATEST UPDATE: Man in custody in suspected assassination attempt on Donald Trump
Fast action by a secret service agent likely saved the life of former president Donald Trump on Sunday afternoon.
Trump was playing the fifth hole of the Trump National Golf Course, with a secret service detail in a golf cart one hole ahead of him. An agent in the detail saw a man crouched in the bushes along the fairway. Spotting the muzzle of a rifle, the agent opened fire on the man, who fled.
Trump was immediately rushed to safety by secret service agents, reports The New York Post.
In a press conference, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office said, despite the quick action of the secret service, Trump’s security was lighter because he’s not Joe Biden, the sitting commander-in-chief, intimating if Trump had that level of service, the gunman may have been apprehended earlier.
“At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had this entire golf course around it. But because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the secret service deems possible,” Bradshaw said.
In the press conference, Bradshaw added, “at one-thirty this afternoon, a call came in ‘shots fired’, that was called in by the secret service. We had units that immediately sealed off the area. Fortunately, we were able to locate a witness who came to us and said ‘I saw a guy running out of the bushes, he jumped into a black Nissan and I took a picture of the vehicle and the tag.”
“We put it out to the license plate reader and we were able to get a read on that vehicle.”
It was pulled over and the driver, Ryan Wesley Routh of Hawaii was arrested after allegedly pointing an AK-47 assault rifle at Trump.
Police found two back packs and a camera in the spot Routh was hiding.
“There’s also a GoPro on the fence there, where he was intent on filming what was going on,” said Bradshaw.
The FBI released a statement saying that the incident at former President Trump’s golf club “appears to be an attempted assassination.”
An assassination attempt against Trump occurred in July when shots were fired at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
