(AP) The FBI said former President Donald Trump was the target of “what appears to be an attempted assassination ” at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, just nine weeks after the Republican presidential nominee survived another attempt on his life.
U.S. Secret Service agents opened fire on Sunday after seeing a person with a firearm near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club in Florida while he was golfing. No injuries were reported. Officials say the person fled in an SUV and was later apprehended by local law enforcement.
The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, was charged Monday with federal gun crimes. Additional and more serious charges are possible as the investigation continues and prosecutors seek an indictment from a grand jury.
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Hawaii nonprofit details history with Routh
HomeAid Hawai’i, a nonprofit organization that helps homeless people find housing, said Ryan Routh offered his company’s services to help with roofing and flooring for the construction of tiny homes from 2018 to 2020.
“He was not compensated, and no complaints were recorded during his time with us under HomeAid Hawai’I’s previous leadership,” Kimo Carvalho, the organization’s executive director, said Monday in a press release.
The organization has not used Routh’s services since 2020, Carvalho said.
Authorities are still working to confirm whether Routh acted alone
Authorities have no information so far to suggest that the suspect in the apparent assassination attempt was acting with anyone else, an FBI official said.
Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI Miami Field Office, cautioned that the investigation is still underway and that authorities are working to confirm whether Routh acted alone.
Secret Service acting director says agency’s protective measures are ‘working’
U.S. Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe said that protective measures are working after the latest apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump.
Rowe said he spoke with the former president and that Trump is “aware that he has the highest levels of protection” from the agency. He also said agents did their jobs to the letter when they noticed a man poking a rifle through the bushes at Trump’s golf course on Sunday.
Rowe said the golf trip wasn’t on Trump’s schedule, so they put together a security plan.
“And that security plan worked out,” he said.
Routh ‘did not have a line of sight to the former president,’ Secret Service’s acting director says
Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. of the U.S. Secret Service says Routh “did not have a line of sight to the former president” and did not fire at Secret Service agents before he fled the scene.
Routh’s family members and former colleagues are being interviewed by FBI, agent says
Authorities are pursuing and executing search warrants for cell phones, a vehicle and electronics of the suspect in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump, an FBI official said.
Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI Miami Field Office, said authorities are interviewing witnesses on the scene as well as family members and former colleagues of Ryan Routh.
Routh had numerous felony charges between 1997 and 2010, FBI agent says
Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Veltri says Routh has numerous felony charges for stolen goods between 1997 and 2010.
Routh was the subject of a closed investigation in 2019 when someone reported he was in possession of a firearm despite a prior felony conviction, but Veltri says the tipster would not confirm making the report.
