US: Trump safe after armed man arrested near candidate's golf club

US presidential candidate Donald Trump was rushed to safety Sunday (Sep. 15) after he was the target of what the FBI said “appears to be an attempted assassination”.

Heavy police deployment was visible outside of West Palm Beach golf club where the incident took place.

Secret Service agents opened fire after seeing the gunman who then fled.

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office held a press conference.

“ Fortunately, we were able to locate a witness who came to us that said, ‘Hey, I saw the guy running out of the bushes," Sheriff Ric Bradshaw recounted.

"He jumped into a black Nissan, and I took a picture of the vehicle and the tag. 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."

The gunman was roughly 360 meters away from Donald Trump the sheriff said.

The former president who survived an attempt on his life in August, was spending a morning off the campaign trail at his Florida golf club.

Media reports have identified the man as 58-year-old Routh Ryan.

Ongoing investigation

“We have somebody in custody right now that is a potential suspect. We've got a little bit more work to do on it. But as we usually do, as soon as we decide that we're going to book them into the county jail and the charges that he's going to be booked into, we'll get those to you, and we'll get a picture of him, and we'll get you his background.”

An AK-47 rifle, with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a camera were found nearby where the gunman was pointing the rifle as Trump was on the course.

The FBI is leading the investigation and working to determine any motive.

In 2020, Routh made a social media post backing Trump's reelection, but in more recent years his posts have expressed support for Biden and Harris.

The pro-Ukraine activist posted many publications on social media to recruit foreigners to fight in Ukraine, and spent several months in the country, according to an interview with The New York Times last year.

Trump running mate JD Vance says former president is ‘in good spirits’

Trump’s running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance, posted on X that he spoke to the former president before the news became public and said “he was, amazingly, in good spirits.”

Vance said there was still a lot “we don’t know” about the incident.