Authorities in Florida said a witness photographed the suspect in the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump fleeing from bushes on Sunday.
At a press conference held with the FBI on Sunday, Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw said the Secret Service called in a report of shots fired around 1:30 p.m. and that deputies already near the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, had sealed off the area.
“We were fortunate to have a witness come forward and say, 'I saw that guy run out of the bushes, he jumped into a black Nissan and I took a picture of the car and the license plate,'” Bradshaw told reporters. “So we got that information, our Real Time Crime Center sent that to our license plate reader and we were able to locate the vehicle traveling down I-95 heading towards Martin County. We contacted the Martin County Sheriff's Office and they reported it and they found the vehicle, pulled it over and took the guy into custody.”
Police then interviewed a witness with the person who was detained, “who identified him as the person who ran out of the bushes and jumped into a vehicle,” Bradshaw said.
Democrats call for Secret Service to expand Trump's security perimeter: 'Unacceptable'
Authorities later identified the suspect as Ryan Welsey Routh, who is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday morning.
Ryan Routh is accused of pointing an AK-47 at former President Donald Trump while he was playing golf at a West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course on Sunday. This is being investigated as a second assassination attempt against Trump. (Source: Fox News Digital)
Police later found an AK-47-style rifle with a scope in the brush, two backpacks hanging from a ceramic tile fence and a GoPro camera, the sheriff added.
“The Secret Service agents that were on the course did a great job,” Bradshaw said. “They had an agent jump one hole up to where the president was, they saw the barrel of a rifle sticking out of the fence, and they immediately engaged the individual. At that point, the individual fled. Here's what we know about the investigation.”
While Bradshaw praised the Secret Service's response, he acknowledged that security around Trump was limited.
FBI agents at a crime scene outside the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 15, 2024. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
Second assassination attempt on Trump takes place at Florida golf club; suspect Ryan Routh arrested
“You have to understand that the golf course is surrounded by shrubs, so if someone goes into the shrubs, they're pretty much invisible,” Bradshaw said. “And this level that he's at right now is, he's not a sitting president. If he was, he would have surrounded this entire golf course. Well, because he's not a sitting president, security is limited to areas that the Secret Service deems feasible.”
A Secret Service representative confirmed that Trump was “safe and unharmed following the security incident that occurred just before 2 p.m. Sunday at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.” The representative told a press conference, “Secret Service agents fired shots at an active shooter near the property line, and the incident remains under investigation.”
A sheriff's vehicle is photographed near Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, after gunshots were reported near former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. (Peter Burke/Fox News Digital)
At a press conference, Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Veltri of the FBI's Miami field office confirmed that the FBI is leading the federal investigation and has “deployed a number of resources, including investigative teams, crisis response team members, bomb disposal technicians and evidence response team members.”
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He urged the public to avoid the area and vowed that the FBI “will continue to support this investigation with the full resources of the FBI, working with the U.S. Secret Service, Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, Martin County Sheriff's Office, and state and local law enforcement.”
