By Gram Slattery and David Lawder
(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. The FBI declined to comment and Reuters could not independently verify his identity.
It was not clear if or how the suspect knew Trump was playing golf at the time, or what his motive was, but the attempted attack was sure to raise new questions about the level of protection he 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.
Reuters found profiles on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn for a Ryan Routh.
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 three accounts bearing Routh’s name suggest he was an avid supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia. In several of the posts, he appeared to be trying to help recruit soldiers for Ukraine’s war effort.
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 newest Trump assassination attempt and had “no information,” adding it was not something he believed his father would do.
Later, the reporter called back to the store and a colleague said Adam had gone home because of an emergency.
GUN BARREL IN BUSHES
Late on Sunday, Secret Service and Homeland Security agents searched the suspect’s former home in Greensboro, North Carolina. A Reuters witness spoke with a neighbor, who confirmed the identity of the former owner as Ryan Routh.
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 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.
Sheriff’s deputies in neighboring Martin County apprehended the suspect on I-95 about 40 miles (65km) from the golf course.
Fox News presenter Sean Hannity said he’d spoken to both Trump and Steve Witkoff, a New York real estate investor and longtime Trump friend who was on the golf course with him.
“They were on the fifth hole. And the way Steve described this, the way the president described it, they both had exactly the same story, which is that they heard pop pop, pop pop,” said Hannity. The Secret Service “pounced on the president, covered him”, he added.
The White House said in a statement Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had been briefed about the incident 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 an X social media post.
DEMOCRACY WORRIES
On X in 2020, Routh expressed support for Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and mocked Biden as “sleepy Joe.”
Earlier this year, Routh tagged Biden in a post on X: “@POTUS Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA …make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”
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. The gunman, identified as a 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
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.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery in Washington and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco, California; Mike Stone, Douglas Gillison, Richard Cowan, Jason Lange and Jeff Mason in Washington; Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; Helen Coster in New York; Jonathan Drake in Greensboro, North Carolina;Writing by David Lawder;Editing by Noeleen Walder and Lincoln Feast)
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