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Suspect arrested after new Trump assassination attempt
STORY: Former U.S. President Donald Trump is safe after shots were fired at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida,in what the FBI says was another assassination attempt. Officials say Secret Service agents spotted a rifle barrel poking out of the bushes as they were clearing holes on the course ahead of Trump, then fired on a gunman near the property line, only a few hundred yards from where the former president was playing.Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says a witness manages to take pictures of the suspect fleeing in black Nissan.:: X/@dannyspitin“So, we had that information, our real time crime center 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. We got a hold of Martin County Sheriff’s Office, alerted them and they spotted the vehicle and pulled it over.”Bradshaw said officers found an AK-47 style rifle, two backpacks and a GoPro camera at the scene.He also said a person was in custody.It was not clear if or how the suspect knew Trump was playing golf at the time.CNN, Fox News and The New York Times identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, citing unnamed law enforcement officials. Reuters found social media posts that matched the man identified by those media outlets on LinkedIn, Facebook and X. By Sunday night, Reuters was not able to confirm these were the suspect’s accounts and law enforcement agencies declined to comment.However, public access to the Facebook and X profiles was removed hours after the shooting.The three accounts bearing Routh’s name suggest he was an avid supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia. In several of the posts, he appeared to be trying to help recruit soldiers for Ukraine’s war effort.Trump sent an email after the incident to supporters, seen by Reuters, saying that he was safe. The former president was injured in July by an earlier assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, raising questions about protection for candidates just months ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The first shooting of a U.S. president or major party presidential candidate in more than four decades was a glaring security lapse that forced Kimberly Cheatle to resign as Secret Service director under bipartisan congressional pressure.
