(Reuters) -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.
Several Secret Service agents fired on a gunman in bushes near the property line of the golf course after he was spotted a few hundred yards from where Trump was playing, law enforcement officials said.
The suspect left an AK-47-style assault rifle and other items at the scene and fled in a vehicle and 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.
Both incidents highlight the challenges of keeping presidential candidates safe in a hotly contested and polarized campaign with just over seven weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election.
“I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes – It was certainly an interesting day!,” Trump said on social media late on Sunday, thanking Secret Service and police for keeping him safe.
CNN, Fox News and the New York Times identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, citing unidentified law enforcement officials. Late on Sunday, Secret Service and Homeland Security agents searched a home in Greensboro, North Carolina, which a neighbor confirmed had belonged to Routh.
The attempted attack was sure to raise new questions about the level of protection Trump is given. In response to a reporter’s question, officials acknowledged that because Trump is not in office, the full golf course was not cordoned off.
“If he was, we would have had the entire golf course surrounded,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said during Sunday’s briefing. “Because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”
Soon after the incident, Trump sent an email to his supporters, saying: “Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!”
President Joe Biden later said he had directed his team to ensure the Secret Service has the resources it needs to ensure Trump’s safety, according to a statement released by the White House.
SUPPORTER OF UKRAINE
Presumed suspect Ryan Routh had travelled to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in 2022, where he told journalists he aimed to help recruit foreign fighters to Kyiv’s cause after being rejected as too old to volunteer himself.
“A lot of the other conflicts are grey but this conflict is definitely black and white. This is about good versus evil,” Routh said in a video interview posted by Newsweek Romania in June 2022.
“If the governments will not send their official military, then we, civilians, have to pick up the torch and make this thing happen and we have gotten some wonderful people here but it is a small fraction of the number that should be here.”
Showing emotion as he pleaded to the camera in a shirt with American flag symbols, he called on people from around the world to stand up “for humanity, for human rights, for everything that is good with the world” by supporting the country at war.
Profiles on X, Facebook (NASDAQ:META), and LinkedIn for a Ryan Routh also contained support for Ukraine. Reuters was not able to confirm these were the suspect’s accounts and law enforcement agencies declined to comment, but public access to the Facebook and X profiles was removed hours after the shooting.
The suspected gunman’s son, Adam, reached by Reuters at the hardware store where he works in Hawaii, said he had not yet heard of the assassination attempt and had “no information,” adding it was not something he believed his father would do.
Later, the reporter called back and a colleague said Adam had gone home because of an emergency.
GUN BARREL IN BUSHES
Bradshaw said a Secret Service agent protecting Trump saw a rifle barrel poking out from bushes about 400 to 500 yards (365 to 460 meters) away from the former president as they cleared holes of potential threats ahead of his play.
Agents engaged the gunman, firing at least four rounds of ammunition around 1:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) on Sunday.
The gunman dropped his rifle, and left behind two backpacks and other items, and fled in a black Nissan (OTC:NSANY) car. The sheriff said a witness saw the gunman and managed to take photos of his car and license plate before he escaped.
Sheriff’s deputies in neighboring Martin County apprehended the suspect on I-95 about 40 miles (65km) from the golf course.
The White House said in a statement Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had been briefed and were relieved to know he was safe.
Trump is locked in a tight presidential election race with Harris, who has had a surge in the polls since replacing Biden as the Democratic Party’s candidate in July.
“Violence has no place in America,” Harris said in a post on X.
DEMOCRACY WORRIES
Earlier this year, Routh warned in a post on X that democracy in the U.S. was at stake in the upcoming election.
Harris has repeatedly warned that another Trump term would threaten U.S. democracy and has vowed unwavering support for Ukraine in its struggle against Russia. Trump, asked during a debate last week whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war, said that he wanted it to end.
Trump was grazed in the right ear and one rallygoer was killed in the gunfire at the Pennsylvania rally on July 13.
That was the first shooting of a U.S. president or major party presidential candidate in more than four decades, and the glaring security lapse forced Kimberly Cheatle to resign as Secret Service director under bipartisan congressional pressure.
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