By Steve Neavling
The FBI is investigating what it describes as “an apparent attempted assassination” of former President Donald Trump after Secret Service agents opened fire on an armed man at Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday.
This incident comes a little over two months after Trump was injured in a separate attack.
Trump was playing on the course, situated a few hundred yards from the incident, when Secret Service personnel noticed a man hiding in the bushes and engaged him, according to law enforcement officials who briefed the media, The New York Times reports.
The suspect fled the scene in a vehicle but was apprehended during a subsequent traffic stop.
Authorities recovered a rifle with a scope, a camera, and two backpacks from the bushes.
The Secret Service has not yet confirmed whether the suspect fired any shots during the incident.
The suspect has been identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh of Hawaii, according to a U.S. law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation.
Routh had previously been interviewed by The New York Times in 2023 for a story about Americans volunteering in Ukraine. Despite having no military background, Routh claimed to have traveled to Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion, where he attempted to recruit Afghan soldiers to join the fight. He also mentioned efforts to rally political support for Ukraine in Washington, D.C.
This latest event follows a July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pa., where a 20-year-old gunman opened fire while Trump was onstage, grazing his right ear. The attack resulted in one death and two injuries among the crowd before the gunman was fatally shot by Secret Service agents.
