Washington: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating an alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump at his Florida golf club, marking the second such attempt in two months, media reports said on Monday. A man has been detained in connection with the incident.
Trump is safe and was not harmed in the incident, his campaign said.
The person in custody in connection with the apparent attempted assassination is Ryan Wesley Routh, according to three law enforcement sources.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said during a Sunday news conference that his office was informed at 1.30 pm ET of shots fired by the Secret Service, when agents fired at a man who had a rifle in the bushes along the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club, CNN reported.
Trump had been playing golf at the time, moving between holes five and six, a source briefed on the matter.
A Secret Service agent spotted a rifle barrel with a scope sticking out of the fence of the golf course and “immediately engaged” with the person, Bradshaw said.
The agent who spotted the rifle, Bradshaw said, is part of a team that stays a hole or two ahead of Trump on the course. The person was 300 to 500 yards away from Trump, reports said.
Officials said an AK-47-style rifle with a scope; two backpacks that were hung on the fence and had ceramic tile in them; and a GoPro camera were recovered at the scene.
According to CNN reports, a person fled the scene in a car, spotted by a witness, who assisted law enforcement in locating a vehicle driving north on I-95 in Martin County, north of Palm Beach.
“We are able to catch a witness that came to us and said, ‘Hey, I saw the guy running out of the bushes, he jumped into a black Nissan, and I took a picture of the vehicle and the tag,’ which was great,” Bradshaw said.
Authorities notified the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, who detained the individual, who was later identified by a witness, sources said.
David Aronberg, State Attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, said that the suspect said nothing as he was detained.
“He knew enough to stay silent,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Sunday evening. “He did not apparently speak to officers, he was calm. So, it looked like a person who has done this before, not necessarily this crime, but someone who has had repeated interactions with law enforcement.”
The FBI’s investigation has gone global as officials work to flesh out his background, a law enforcement source told CNN.
