Just two months after an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in July during a rally in Pennsylvania, another apparent attempt on the Republican presidential nominee’s life was foiled by authorities on Sunday at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump was unharmed, and a suspect who fled the scene was arrested. Politicians across the spectrum have condemned the attack, and law enforcement officials are investigating.
Hiding in the bushes: what happened
While Trump was golfing on Sunday around 1:30 p.m., a Secret Service agent, positioned one hole ahead of the former President, noticed a rifle muzzle an estimated 300-500 yards away, peeking out of bushes lining the golf course, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said in a press briefing later on Sunday. (For reference, the shooter in July was appx. 400 feet—about one-third of the distance—away from Trump.)
As Secret Service personnel opened fire at the gunman hiding in the bushes, Bradshaw recounted, the gunman dropped his weapon and other items—an “AK-47-style rifle with a scope, two backpacks which were hung on the fence that had ceramic tile in them, and a GoPro [camera]”—and fled in a vehicle.
It’s unclear if the suspect had managed to take any shots at Secret Service agents during the engagement, a Secret Service representative said during the press briefing on Sunday
A witness reported seeing the suspect flee from the bushes and photographed the vehicle he jumped into. Authorities were able to pull that vehicle over on a highway, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post around 3:30 p.m. “We did not give him an opportunity to put up a fight, we had him contained, forced off the road, taken out at gunpoint,” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told the media of the arrest during the later press briefing, adding that the suspect was unarmed, “relatively calm,” and “not displaying a lot of emotions” when he was stopped.
The witness was brought in to confirm the suspect was the same person seen fleeing earlier. Authorities have not named the suspect, though anonymous sources in law enforcement have identified the man arrested to multiple media outlets as Ryan Routh.
No comments:
Post a Comment