FAST DOWNLOAD
The Secret Service didn’t discover a gunman hiding in the bushes of a West Palm Beach golf course Sunday until former President Donald Trump was 500 yards away from him, raising additional questions about whether the embattled agency is up to the task of safeguarding the GOP nominee.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. praised his agents Monday for thwarting what authorities said was the second assassination attempt against Trump in as many months. At an afternoon news conference with other law enforcement officials, he called it a “textbook” example of how his agents were able to identify and neutralize an armed threat to Trump while he was out golfing with a friend.
Rowe said the Secret Service has significantly beefed up its security measures for Trump since he was shot and wounded in the ear in a July 13 assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Those increased assets, which Rowe said were in place Sunday, included counter-snipers, counter-surveillance agents deployed around Trump International Golf Club, counter-assault teams partnered with local Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies and unmanned aerial system elements, or drones.
As a result, Rowe said, an agent “encountered an individual attempting to secrete himself in the wood line” at the public periphery of the golf course and shot at the suspect, prompting him to flee before being captured by local police. Other agents then swarmed Trump and took him to safety.
“The protective methodologies of the Secret Service were effective yesterday,” Rowe said. “The former president’s protective apparatus allowed for the early identification of the threat and led to a safe evacuation.”
Hours before Rowe’s comments, a federal criminal complaint filed against suspected gunman Ryan Routh cited cellphone records that showed he spent 12 hours waiting in a wooded area adjacent to the golf course before aiming a semi-assault rifle in Trump’s direction shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday.
Rowe, who visited the golf course after flying down from Washington Monday, said the would-be shooter didn’t have a clear line of sight in order to take a shot at Trump and never fired any rounds. He told reporters that was another indication that the agents did what they were supposed to do.
Routh, who made a court appearance Monday, is charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and with possessing a firearm that has an obliterated serial number, according to the federal criminal complaint.
‘The people deserve the truth’ about what happened Sunday: DeSantis
Rowe’s comments came as some lawmakers in Washington called for a probe into what happened on the golf course, even as the Secret Service is still facing criticism for allowing a young gunman to climb atop a nearby roof and fire off eight rounds at the July 13 rally. Thomas Matthew Crooks killed one attendee and injured two others before being killed by an agency counter-sniper.
