The FBI is investigating the apparent attempt Sunday to assassinate former President Donald Trump. His campaign said he was unharmed in the episode, which took place at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, just over two months after he was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Officials said Secret Service personnel fired on a suspect, who was armed with a rifle and was hiding in bushes around the golf course. The suspect fled the scene, but his vehicle was spotted shortly afterward and he was taken into custody without incident, according to officials.
The suspect was charged in federal court Monday with two firearms counts. Additional charges may follow.
Here’s what we know.
What happened at the golf club?
A Secret Service agent was patrolling ahead of Trump on the golf course at about 1:30 p.m. when the agent spotted a rifle barrel sticking out of a fence, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw of Palm Beach County said at a news conference. He said Trump was about 400 yards away at the time.
Secret Service agents fired at the man holding the rifle, who fled on foot and got into a black Nissan, leaving the rifle and other items behind. Officials said Monday afternoon that the man did not fire, and that he did not have Trump in his sight line.
Trump left the course and returned to Mar-a-Lago, his residence and private club, according to a person briefed on the situation, and his campaign office in West Palm Beach was locked down and secured.
The FBI said it was investigating the incident as an apparent assassination attempt on the former president. At the scene, investigators found a semiautomatic rifle with a scope, and two backpacks containing ceramic tile that were hung on the fence. They also found some food and a video camera, and said they believed the suspect may have intended to film the shooting.
The criminal complaint said the gun was an SKS-style rifle, and that it was found loaded. The SKS is a Soviet-era semiautomatic rifle developed in the 1940s; it is a rugged, reliable and fairly accurate weapon that has been seen in conflicts around the world and is popular in the United States, in part because it is relatively inexpensive.
Law enforcement officials said Monday that they were trying to learn where the rifle had been sold and who had bought it. The serial number had been partially scratched away, they said, making the rifle more difficult to trace.
Trump spoke with friends and allies Sunday afternoon, and joked about wishing he had been able to finish his golf game.
What is known about the suspect?
Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Ryan W. Routh, 58. He was charged Monday with two federal felony counts, according to the Justice Department — possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. The first charge is the more serious of the two, carrying a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. It is possible that additional charges may be filed.
Authorities have not said what they think the suspect’s motive was for attempting an assassination. Jeffrey B. Veltri, the FBI’s top agent in Miami, said in a news conference Monday that the agency had no information that the suspect was working with anybody else.
Routh is a former construction worker who has lived in Greensboro, North Carolina, and in Hawaii. He was interviewed by The New York Times for a March 2023 article about American volunteers who traveled to Ukraine to support the war effort against Russia. Routh said he was trying to recruit Afghan solders who fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine.
Routh was arrested in 2002 in Greensboro after barricading himself inside a building with a fully automatic weapon, according to The Greensboro News & Record. Federal court records show that he was convicted in December 2002 of “possessing a weapon of mass death and destruction,” a felony.
Sheriff William D. Snyder of Martin County, Florida, where the suspect was apprehended Sunday, said that when his deputies arrested the suspect, he “was not displaying a lot of emotions.” He was not armed when he was taken from his vehicle, the sheriff said.
The FBI said Monday that cellphone records indicated that the suspect had been “lurking in the vicinity of the area along the tree line” at the edge of the golf course beginning at 1:59 a.m. Sunday — about 12 hours before his rifle was spotted.
Veltri also said that Routh had been the subject of a 2019 bureau investigation based on a tip that he was in possession of a firearm as a felon. The case was closed after the agency interviewed the person who made the complaint and did not receive any additional information.
What happened in the earlier assassination attempt?
Trump survived an assassination attempt at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, when a sniper on the roof of a nearby building shot at him as he spoke. One bullet grazed Trump’s right ear.
A volunteer firefighter attending the rally, Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed, and two other attendees were critically injured in the shooting.
Trump was rushed off the stage and was found not to be seriously hurt. A photograph of him bleeding with his fist raised in the air as the Secret Service ushered him offstage became a defining image of his campaign.
The Secret Service said its agents shot and killed the sniper, who was identified afterward by federal law enforcement officials as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
Since that incident, the agency has added agents to Trump’s protective detail and stepped up intelligence efforts.
The incident prompted intense criticism of the Secret Service, and several investigations into what went wrong that day are underway. Kimberly A. Cheatle, the director of the agency at the time, resigned in late July following calls from lawmakers in both parties for her to step down.
What are the new questions about the Secret Service?
The apparent assassination attempt Sunday quickly raised new questions about the agency’s ability to protect candidates.
“Certainly a second serious incident, apparently involving an assault weapon, is deeply alarming and appalling,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the chair of the Senate subcommittee investigating the security failures at Butler.
President Joe Biden told reporters Monday that “the Service needs more help.”
As at Butler, the incident Sunday appeared to involve a flaw in the security perimeter around Trump. It took place at the Trump International Golf Club, a facility Trump owns that is about 5 miles west of Mar-a-Lago. The suspect apparently hid undetected for about 12 hours at a location where he would be able to see Trump playing golf. Similarly, the shooter in Butler found a spot on the roof of a warehouse just outside the rally’s security perimeter where he was hidden from direct view from the ground and had a line of fire to the rally stage.
Bradshaw said the size of Trump’s security detail was smaller than it would be if he were a sitting president.
The Secret Service plans to conduct an internal review of the incident at the golf course, similar to the one initiated after the shooting in Butler.