TRANSCRIPT
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is safe after what the FBI says appears to be an assassination attempt while the former president was golfing on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says the gunman was concealed in some bushes near the property line of the golf course, around 450 metres from Trump, when Secret Service agents spotted a rifle barrel.
"The Secret Service agent that was on the course did a fantastic job. What they do is they have an agent that jumps one hole ahead of time to where the president was at and he was able to spot this rifle barrel sticking out of the fence and immediately engage that individual, at which time the individual took off.”
Authorities didn't confirm whether the gunman actually fired a weapon in the direction of the former president but said at least four shots were fired at the suspect by the Secret Service.
The gunman then dropped an AK47-style rifle and fled the scene.
Sheriff Bradshaw says police were lucky to have had a witness assist with identifying the suspect and his vehicle, ultimately leading to the eventual arrest.
"Fortunately, we were able to locate 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. So, we had that information, our real time crime centre put it out to the license plate readers, and we were able to get a hit on that vehicle on I-95 as it was headed into Martin County and pulled it over and detained the guy."
The Martin County Sheriff William Snyder says his officers did their best to ensure the situation did not escalate when making the arrest.
“We waited a while. We didn't stop him right away. We didn't want a high speed chase. So we were able to wait until we had adequate units, surrounded the vehicle and then forced it to a stop.”
The New York Times and Fox News have identified the suspect as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh of Hawaii, citing unnamed law enforcement officials.
He reportedly has a history of several arrests and was critical of both Democrat and Republican politicians on social media.
Law enforcement are still yet to confirm the identity and have not provided details about a potential motive.
Following reports of a shooting, Donald Trump sent an email to his fundraising list saying there were "gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumours start spiralling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!"
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to early reports of the incident saying he was happy to hear the former president was alive and well.
"Everyone wants the democratic process to be peaceful and to be orderly. This incident in the United States is of concern again. The incident, the details of which are still coming out, so it's not quite clear all of those details, but what is clear is that President Trump is safe. That is a good thing."
Trump's political rivals President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris say they've been briefed about the incident and are relieved to know Trump is safe.
Ms Harris posted on X that "Violence has no place in America."
If the incident is confirmed as an assassination attempt, it would be the second in just two months after Donald Trump was injured in a separate assassination attempt at a campaign rally on the 13th of July which saw one of his supporters killed by the would-be assassin.
The FBI has taken over the investigation into this latest incident, with the special agent in charge of their Miami field office, Jeffrey Veltri, saying officers are still gaining a deeper understanding of what exactly occurred.
"The FBI has assumed the role as the lead federal law enforcement agency in the investigation of the incident that occurred earlier today at Trump International Golf Course here in West Palm Beach, Florida. We've deployed a number of resources, including the investigative teams, crisis response team members, bomb technicians and evidence response team members as well."
Speaking to US broadcaster ABC News, retired Senior Secret Service Agent Donald Mihalek says the cooperation between law enforcement agencies is to be commended.
"From the minute the shots were fired, to the information being put on the Secret Service and sheriff offices, who are their counterparts down there. They were able to take that information - and do a rapid investigation using technology...the tremendous advances of the license plate readers - the LPRs (license plate recognition)- which can passively identify and track car, really were helpful with the investigation to get this resolved as quickly as it was."
