Trump escapes new kill try
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was safe on Sunday after the Secret Service foiled what the FBI called an apparent assassination attempt while he was golfing on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Secret Service agents spotted and fired on a gunman in bushes near the property line of the golf course, a few hundred yards from where Trump was playing, law enforcement officials said.
The suspect left an AK-47-style assault rifle with a scope and a GoPro video camera when he fled in a vehicle but was later arrested.
The apparent attempt on Trump’s life came just two months after he was shot at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, sustaining a minor injury to his right ear.
Polarized campaign
Both incidents occurred amid a hotly contested and polarized campaign with just over seven weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election.
The attempted attack was sure to raise new questions about the level of protection he is given.
CNN, Fox News and The New York Times identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, citing unnamed law enforcement officials. The FBI declined to comment.
Reuters found profiles on X, Facebook and LinkedIn for a Ryan Routh who appeared to be the man identified as the suspect by those news organizations.
The three accounts bearing Routh’s name suggest he was an avid supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said Secret Service agents saw a rifle barrel poking out from bushes about 365 to 460 meters away from Trump as they cleared holes of potential threats ahead of his play.
The agents engaged the gunman, firing at least four rounds of ammunition around 1:30 p.m.
The gunman then dropped his rifle, and left behind two backpacks and other items, and fled in a black Nissan car. The sheriff said a witness saw the gunman and managed to take photos of his car and license plate before he escaped.
‘Pop, pop, pop’
After the suspect fled the scene, police sent out an alert on his vehicle, which was stopped in neighboring Martin County, apprehending the suspect on I-95 about 65 kilometers from the golf course.
Fox News presenter Sean Hannity said he’d spoken to Trump who told him he heard “pop pop, pop pop,” while on the golf course.
The Secret Service “pounced on the president, covered him, he added.
Trump sent an email to supporters saying: “I AM SAFE AND WELL!”
The White House said that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were relieved to know that he was safe.
Trump is locked in a tight presidential election race with Harris.
‘Threat to democracy’
“Violence has no place in America,” Harris said in an X social media post.
On X in 2020, Routh expressed support for Democratic US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and mocked Biden as “sleepy Joe.”
Earlier this year, Routh warned in a post on X that democracy in the US was at stake in the upcoming election.
Harris has repeatedly warned that another Trump term would threaten US democracy and has vowed unwavering support for Ukraine in its struggle against Russia.
Trump was grazed in the right ear in the gunfire at the Pennsylvania rally on July 13. The gunman was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
