WASHINGTON – Donald Trump was the target of an apparent assassination attempt Sunday in Florida, the FBI said, with the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign and law enforcement reporting he was safe and unharmed.
The U.S. Secret Service confirmed one or more of its agents “opened fire on a gunman” located near the boundary of Trump’s golf course and that an “AK-47 style rifle” with a scope was recovered along with a GoPro video camera.
Amid the confrontation with the Secret Service, the suspect bolted out of the shrubbery he had been hiding in and escaped in a black car. A witness helped police identify the vehicle and authorities tracked it down.
“We have somebody in custody right now that is a potential suspect,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told a news conference.
U.S. media named the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, who had expressed support for Ukraine. Agence France-Presse (AFP) interviewed him in 2022 in Kyiv, where he had traveled to support the war effort.
Trump had been playing golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, not far from his Mar-a-Lago residence, when the would-be shooter was spotted in bushes one hole ahead of the former president, Bradshaw said.
“President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity,” his campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement, while Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris expressed relief her political rival was out of danger.
Trump himself said in a fundraising message on his website: “Fear not! I am safe and well, and no one was hurt. Thank God!”
