Police on Sunday arrested a gunman who had fled after what appeared to be a second assassination attempt on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, with shots fired at his Florida golf course.
Here are five things to know about the attempted attack on the former US president.
– What happened? –
At approximately 1:30 pm local time (1730 GMT) on Sunday, a US Secret Service agent noticed the barrel of a rifle pointing out of shrubbery on the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach.
Agents, who were deployed in a moving security bubble extending about one or two holes ahead of the former president, “engaged” an individual, the US Secret Service’s Rafael Barros said, with the suspect fleeing the scene.
Trump was unharmed.
Former president Trump was “between 300 and 500 yards” (270-450 meters) away when the incident occurred, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.
Police recovered a “AK-47-style” rifle equipped with a scope, two backpacks, and a GoPro camera from the scene, Bradshaw said.
“With a rifle and a scope like that, that’s not a long distance,” said the sheriff, referring to the distance between the recovered gun and Trump.
– The arrest –
A suspect was arrested soon after the incident. Police apprehended him after receiving information from a witness who reported a man fleeing the scene in a black vehicle.
The vehicle was identified by its registration information and spotted on the I-95 highway as it entered adjacent Martin County, police said. Authorities pulled over the vehicle and detained the suspect.
US media reported the man was unarmed and appeared calm when taken into custody.
– Who is the attacker? –
Police identified the would-be attacker as Ryan Wesley Routh, whom AFP interviewed in Kyiv in 2022, where he had traveled to support the war effort against Russia.
Routh, 58, is reported to be a self-employed affordable housing builder based in Hawaii, with an arrest record spanning decades.
He regularly posted about politics and current events on social media, including criticism of Trump, US media said.
AFP interviewed Routh in Kyiv in April 2022, while he was taking part in a demonstration in support of Ukrainians trapped in the port city of Mariupol which was under siege by Russian forces.
“Putin is a terrorist, and he needs to be ended, so we need everybody from around the world to stop what they are doing and come here now,” he told AFP at the time.
– Increasingly tense election –
The incident appeared to be the second assassination attempt on Trump, after an attack at a rally in July that left him wounded in his right ear, with one rally attendee killed.
Since then, Trump has moved most campaign events indoors, and addresses audiences from behind a bulletproof screen.
Of late, his Democratic rival Kamala Harris has also taken to speaking from behind such a barrier.
Trump’s political rhetoric has always been aggressive, but his 2024 campaign has increased the temperature, with a particular focus on the hot-button issue of immigration.
The Republican says there is an ongoing “invasion” of migrants, who he alleges — without proof — of being responsible for a variety of violent crimes, including murder, rape and robberies, in US cities.
Last week, the Ohio town of Springfield saw a series of bomb threats called in, after Trump riled his base against the town’s roughly 15,000 Haitian migrant residents, falsely accusing them of eating people’s pets.
– Secret Service in crosshairs –
Sunday’s incident brings the spotlight back on the US Secret Service, which is tasked with the security of sitting and former US presidents, after the earlier attack in Butler, Pennsylvania.
On July 13, a shooter managed to set up on a roof 130 yards from the president and fired at least eight times, raising serious questions about the Secret Service’s competence and resulting in the resignation of the agency’s director.
In Florida, the Secret Service had not secured the entirety of the golf course, focusing only on a security bubble around the president, Sheriff Bradshaw said.
“He’s not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded,” he said.
“But because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”
On Monday, US President Joe Biden called for Congress to authorize an increase in personnel for the agency.
“One thing I want to make clear, the (Secret) Service needs more help, and I think the Congress should respond to their needs,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
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