The gunman was suspected of carrying a weapon of mass destruction
The Assassination Attempt of President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris Revisited: I AM SAFE AND WELL!
The president said that Ronald L. Rowe Jr., the acting head of the Secret Service, “is in Florida today, assessing what happened and determining whether any further adjustments need to be made to ensure the safety of our former president.”
In an event on Monday, President Biden also condemned political violence and “the attempted assassination against our former president,” saying the ballot box, not a gun, is how America resolves differences.
“There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!” Trump said in a statement sent out by his campaign on Sunday afternoon.
Trump’s opponent in the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, condemned political violence, saying on Sunday that she was “deeply disturbed by the possible assassination attempt of former President Trump today.”
Federal Election Commission records show Routh donated to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue nearly 20 times, in amounts ranging from $1 to $25, between September 2019 and March 2020.
The suspected assassin involved in an attempted assassination of Donald Trump was charged with a weapons of mass destruction offense in the 1990s.
Routh resided in North Carolina before moving to Hawaii. He builds tiny homes and storage units on Oahu. His digital footprint depicts Routh as a disillusioned former Trump supporter who backs Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The white Ford pickup whose tag was reported stolen was the one that had the license plate on Routh’s Nissan.
A witness came to law enforcement and said that he had seen the man run out of the bushes. He jumped into a black Nissan and I took a picture of the vehicle and the tag’ — which was great.”
A Secret Service Agent’s View of a High-profile Shooting by a Sharp Kkkron-Scale Rifle
Photos from the scene show backpacks hung next to each other on a fence, with a space in between them, in what seems to be a sniper’s nest. The suspect may have intended the tiles to be armor against gunfire.
At the time of Sunday’s encounter, Trump was one or two holes away — “probably between [300] and 500 yards” from the suspect’s location, Bradshaw said. He said that it was not a long distance with a rifle and a scope.
An SKS-style gun has been used in two high-profile attacks over the past decade, one at a baseball field where Members of Congress played and another at a reproductive healthcare facility in Colorado. Five people, including the majority whip and two Capitol Police officers, were wounded in the attack on a Congressional baseball game practice.
The weapon was identified as an SKS-style rifle — its design slightly predates the AK-47 — according to the criminal complaint against Routh. Both guns use the same 7.62 x39mm rounds and the SKS was used by the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War.
“In the bushes where this guy was, is an AK-47-style rifle with a scope, two backpacks which were hung on the fence that had ceramic tile in them and a GoPro” camera, Bradshaw said, noting that the suspect was seemingly intent on filming what took place.
Bradshaw praised the Secret Service for the protection they provided, while predicting that future golf outings would draw more security, and he also noted that the agent did a great job.
“U.S. Secret Service personnel opened fire on a gunman located near the property line,” Rafael Barros, special agent in charge of the Miami field office, said at a news conference. The agents fired several rounds at the suspect from a long distance. As of Sunday afternoon, it wasn’t clear whether the suspect had also fired his weapon, Barros said.
The weapon was spotted in an area of the golf course where three holes — 5, 6 and 7 — turn a corner close to an intersection where two large roads meet: S. Congress Ave. and Summit Blvd.
A Charge of Criminally Exploiting a Golf Course: Ryan Wesley Routh, A 48-Year-old Public Defender, and an attempted Assassination
According to court records from the Guilford District Court in North Carolina obtained by WIRED, Routh was arrested by the Greensboro Police Department on December 16, 2002.
Routh’s cellphone provider offered data suggesting that he had been in the vicinity of the golf course encounter for nearly 12 hours, from 1:59 a.m. to 1:31 p.m., according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court on Monday.
Routh, who was represented by a federal public defender, told federal judge Ryon McCabe that he has no savings to pay for his defense. He said that he has a son who’s 25 years old, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit and shackles.
An attempted assassination appears to have been targeted against former President Donald Trump, according to the FBI. A suspect — Ryan Wesley Routh — is in custody after being identified as a man seen with a rifle at Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“I saw a guy in his [Special Response Team] call out and he stopped and fought him, and then he fled,” he told WIRED
She says she saw him one night in his vehicle. I stopped him in front of his shop, which used to be on Lee Street, because I knew he didn’t have a drivers license. He stopped and when I got to the truck, he pulled a sack out of the center of the seat, and I saw a gun. I drew my gun and told the person to show me their hands. He drove into his house after pulling into his driveway. So we ended up having a [Special Response Team] callout and a big standoff for a couple of hours before they went in and we arrested him.”
According to local reporting, Routh was pulled over by police during a traffic stop. The police said at the time that Routh barricaded himself in the United Roofing business for three hours.
“I figured he was either dead or in prison by now,” Tracy Fulk, the charging officer in the case, tells WIRED. “I had no clue that he had moved on and was continuing his escapades.”
