Federal and local law enforcement officials released new information Sunday evening about a would be assassin who was allegedly planning on murdering Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as he played golf at Trump International Golf Course West Palm Beach.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said that the Secret Service put out the call that shots had been fired at which point a witness told authorities that they saw a person running out of the bushes, getting into a black Nissan, and driving away.
Because the witness got a photo of the vehicle and license plate, law enforcement was quickly able to locate the vehicle and take the suspect into custody.
“Now 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, which he was going to take pictures of,” Bradshaw said at the press conference. “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.”
The FBI said that they were investigating “what appears to be an attempted assassination of” the former president, the second time that someone tried to murder him. Trump was shot in the head in July during a political rally in Pennsylvania after the Secret Service failed to provide adequate protection.
The Secret Service said that would be assassin was only one or two holes behind Trump when the confrontation occurred.
Bradshaw added that the suspect was only “between 300-500 yards” away from Trump, and that “with a rifle and a scope like that, that’s not a long distance.”