The FBI said Donald Trump appeared to be the target of an assassination attempt Sunday in Florida, where the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign said he was safe and unharmed.
The Secret Service confirmed that one or more of its agents “opened fire on a gunman” who was spotted on the edge of Trump’s golf course, and that an “AK-47 rifle with a scope and a GoPro video camera” were found.
The suspect fled in a black car but authorities tracked it down after an eyewitness identified it.
“We have an individual in custody right now who is a suspect,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw said at a news conference.
He added that Trump was playing golf in West Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago residence, when the shooter was spotted some distance away.
“President Trump is safe after shots were fired in his immediate vicinity,” Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chung said in a statement.
“Don’t be afraid! I’m safe, no one was hurt. Thank God,” Trump himself said in a fundraising message posted on his website.
This is the second time in two months that Trump has been threatened by a gunman. The former president was wounded on July 13 while speaking at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The incident left one rally participant dead and two others seriously injured, while the gunman was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Officials speaking at the news conference Sunday would not confirm whether the gunman had fired at the former president, but said shots were fired by Secret Service personnel.
“We are not certain at this time whether this individual was able to shoot our agents,” said Rafael Barros of the Secret Service.
The FBI said it was “investigating an apparent assassination attempt on the Republican candidate for president of the United States.”
Officials praised the Secret Service’s quick action.
Bradshaw said Secret Service personnel protecting Trump on the course while he was playing golf saw “a gun barrel protruding from the fence and immediately engaged this individual who fled at that time.”
William Snyder, the sheriff of neighboring Martin County, told CNN that the suspect arrested by law enforcement was “relatively calm” and “not showing a lot of emotion.”
US authorities quickly opened an investigation, but as of Sunday afternoon there was no indication of a motive behind the assassination attempt.
The White House issued a statement saying that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival in the November election, had been briefed on the incident.
“There is no place for political violence or any violence at all in our country,” Biden said in a statement.
“I have directed my team to continue to ensure that the Secret Service has all the resources, capabilities and safeguards necessary to ensure the safety of the former president,” he added.
Harris expressed her happiness on social media that Trump was “safe.”
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