Witness saw Trump assassination suspect flee bushes, took photo of getaway car
Florida authorities said a witness snapped a photo of the suspect accused in the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump as he fled out of the bushes on Sunday.
At a press conference held alongside the FBI on Sunday, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said a shots-fired call came in from the Secret Service at approximately 1:30 p.m., and units already in the vicinity of Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida sealed off the area.
"Fortunately, we were able to locate a witness that came to us and said, ‘Hey, I saw the guy running out of the bushes. He jumped into a black Nissan and I took a picture of the vehicle and the tag,’ which was great," Bradshaw told reporters. "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 and detained the guy."
Law enforcement then took the witness to see the detained individual, "and he identified him as the person that he saw running out of the bushes and jumped into the car," Bradshaw said.
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Authorities later identified the suspect as Ryan Welsey Routh, who is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday morning.
In the bushes, law enforcement later recovered 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 camera, the sheriff added.
"The Secret Service agent that was on the course did a fantastic job," Bradshaw said. "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. So that's what we know about the investigation."
While commending the Secret Service's response, Bradshaw did admit the perimeter of protection around Trump was limited.
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"You got to understand, the golf course is surrounded by shrubbery. So when somebody gets into the shrubbery, they're pretty much out of sight," Bradshaw said. "And at this level that he is at right now, he's not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded. Well, because he's not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible."
A representative for the Secret Service confirmed Trump was "safe and unharmed, following a protective incident shortly before 2 p.m. on Sunday at Trump International Golf Club at West Palm Beach." The representative at the press conference said "Secret Service personnel opened fire on a gunman located near the property line, and this matter is under investigation."
At the press conference, Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in Charge of the FBI Miami Field Office, confirmed that the FBI is leading the federal investigation, and has "deployed a number of resources, including investigative teams, crisis response team members, bomb technicians and evidence response team members."
He called on the public to avoid the area, and vowed the bureau "will continue to support this investigation with the full resources of the FBI, alongside our partners with the United States Secret Service and the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, as well as Martin County Sheriff's Office and state and local law enforcement."