A suspect armed with an AK-style assault rifle was arrested near Donald Trump’s golf course in Florida on Sunday afternoon after what the FBI called “an attempted assassination of the former president”.
Law enforcement sources in Palm Beach county said the case unfolded as the Republican nominee for November’s presidential election was playing a round of golf at his Trump international course west of Palm Beach, where his Mar-a-Lago resort home is located.
Trump was “safe and unharmed” after US Secret Service agents opened fire after spotting a person with a firearm. A person was stopped and detained on Interstate 95 by deputies in Martin county, immediately north of Palm Beach county, soon afterwards.
The FBI and other law enforcement officials said the suspect had a scope on his rifle, a GoPro camera with which he apparently intended to record footage and a backpack with ceramic tile in it.
It said in a statement: “The FBI has responded to West Palm Beach Florida and is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination of former president Trump.”
Trump survived a previous assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
The sheriff of Martin county, William Snyder, told reporters there had been “a very serious incident” at Trump’s golf club and described the apprehension of a lone male suspect after deputies stopped a vehicle on Interstate 95 just north of Palm Beach county.
Snyder said his office received an alert and tag number from counterparts in Palm Beach county and “immediately flooded I95 on the northbound lane at every exit between the Palm Beach line and St Lucie county line”.
“One of my road patrol stopped the vehicle,” Snyder said.
The sheriff said the suspect was unarmed, and no weapon was immediately visible in the vehicle, which appeared to be a black SUV according to a photograph shown on CNN. However, authorities said they recovered a weapon near the golf course.
The suspect, whom Snyder said was now in the custody of the FBI, offered no resistance.
“The suspect’s demeanor I would describe as having a relatively calm, flat affect,” he said. “He was not displaying a lot of emotions, he never asked: ‘What is this about?’. Obviously law enforcement [was there] with long rifles, blue lights, a lot going on. He never questioned it.
“He was not armed when we took him out of the car.”
Snyder said the vehicle would be towed back to Palm Beach county and handed over to the FBI, whom he said would get a search warrant for it.
Fox News host Sean Hannity told viewers that he had spoken to Trump following the gunfire and confirmed that the former president is “safe and unharmed”.
Hannity added that Trump was on the fifth hole and about to put when “Secret Service pounced on the president, covered him, you had snipers with tripods.”
“They knew the direction where the shots had been fired and they had eyes on the location where the shots had been fired,” Hannity said.
Hannity also said that he confirmed with Trump that a “gun has been found – they identified it as an AK47”.
The Associated Press reported that someone had put the muzzle of an assault-style rifle through the golf club’s fence line.
The White House announced that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had been briefed Sunday. According to pool reports, the White House said: “The president and vice-president have been briefed about the security incident at the Trump International Golf Course, where former president Trump was golfing. They are relieved to know that he is safe. They will be kept regularly updated by their team.”
Harris, the Democratic nominee who is running for president against Trump in the 5 November election, added in a statement on Twitter/X: “I am glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America.”
Citing a source, Natalie Winters, the co-host of War Room, which is hosted by former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon, said on X that a suspect had been arrested in Martin county, Florida, which is north-west of West Palm Beach. Winters added that Trump was “placed in a hard room for protection” after the gunfire.
Trump was injured in an assassination attempt at a political rally in Pennsylvania on 13 July. A spectator was killed, two others were injured, and Secret Service snipers shot the would-be assassin dead.
A Secret Service spokesperson, Anthony Guglielmi, on Sunday confirmed the agency was investigating “a protective incident involving” Trump that occurred at about 2pm local time. “The former president is safe,” Guglielmi added.
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Hugo Lowell, Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting