Second assassination attempt , in two months, for Donald Trump . "I'm fine, I will never give up ," the former president reassured immediately.
The alarm went off around 1:30 p.m. Trump was playing golf at his club in West Palm Beach: he was between the fifth and sixth hole when a Secret Service agent who was ahead of him spotted the barrel of a rifle sticking out of the fence and intervened by opening fire, scaring the gunman away. His colleagues, in the meantime, got Trump to safety: they pounced on him and covered him, also protected by snipers with tripods.
The former president was then driven away in a golf cart, before returning to Mar-a-Lago with a reinforced escort.
A nearby witness saw the suspect running from the bushes and managed to take photos of the car he fled in, a black Nissan, and the license plate. After handing the photos over to the police, officers were able to locate and arrest him: when they stopped him, he was unarmed and calm, showing no great emotion.
The witness identified him and now the man, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, is in police custody . "He has not made any statements," said Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. The man, who moved to Hawaii in 2018 and who has a background at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, was very active on social media. A long criminal record, he supported the Ukrainian cause and was an outspoken critic of Donald Trump.
In the bushes, police found a backpack, a GoPro camera, and an AK-47-style rifle with a scope, a semiautomatic that made Trump “close” to danger even though he was actually 270 to 400 meters away. The investigation is in its early stages, although the FBI bluntly says it is investigating “what appears to be an attempted assassination of the former president.” The suspect’s motive is not yet clear.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been briefed on the incident and will continue to be updated. The president and vice president are "relieved" that Trump is OK. "I'm glad he's OK. Violence has no place in America," Harris added. "I just spoke to President Trump. He's one of the strongest people I know. He's in good spirits, and he's more determined than ever to save this country," Trump's Republican ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, said.
The shooting near Trump comes two months after the attempted assassination of the former president in Butler, Pennsylvania, by 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, killed on the scene by a sniper. Crooks shot the former president while he was on stage, wounding him in the ear but killing another person and wounding two others. An attempted assassination that sparked a storm on the Secret Service, forcing the director to resign. On this occasion, the agents following Trump reacted promptly, avoiding the worst 51 days before elections that will most likely be decided by a few thousand votes.
(Unioneonline/vl)