Donald Trump appears to have been the intended target in a shooting at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, according to a report. The former president is safe, his campaign said in a statement.
CNN reported officials “believe the shots fired at Trump International Golf Club were intended for” Trump, citing sources familiar” with the matter, although the outlet later suggested that it was unclear whether the suspect opened fire.
“The Secret Service identified the direction” of the shots and “returned fire at that gunman, who fled,” CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst and former police official John Miller said on the air.
“Witnesses were able to provide a description of an individual and a vehicle. We are told that a vehicle that is close to that description has been stopped” by police and they were holding that individual for identification purposes, Miller said.
Miller, who stressed his information was preliminary, said his sources shared that a backpack and a semi-automatic rifle “that was described as an AK-47” in early reporting were recovered in the area of the shooting.
A GoPro camera was also discovered, suggesting “this individual may have wanted to record himself in the first-person doing the shooting,” Miller added before explaining how there were “a lot of questions to be answered.”
>> @JohnMillerCNN: All this info is preliminary. But “in the area of the shooting, sources say they recovered a backpack and a semi-automatic rifle… and a GoPro camera.” The camera suggests “that this individual may have wanted to record himself in the first person.” pic.twitter.com/ACliktYvHg
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 15, 2024
In a break with Miller, CNN’s Evan Perez said the Secret Service fired at the suspect because they believed “this person was poised to fire shots, perhaps in the direction of the former president,” and wanted to “prevent this from happening.”
The Secret Service said it was joining with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to investigate “a protective incident involving” Trump that “occurred shortly before 2 p.m.” and affirmed that the former president was “safe.”
On Facebook, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said it stopped a vehicle and a suspect believed to be connected to the shooting was taken into custody. Martin County is located just north of Palm Beach County.
And the FBI later released a statement, saying, “The FBI has responded to West Palm Beach Florida and is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.”
During a press briefing that followed, Rafael Barros of the Secret Service said, “We are not sure right now if the individual was able to take a shot at our agents, but for sure, our agents were able to engage.”
Trump previously went through a harrowing attack in mid-July, when a shooter opened fire on him while he was speaking to a crowd during an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The former president survived, though he was hit in his right ear by a bullet. He raised his fist into the air in a show of strength. One rallygoer, 50-year-old fireman Corey Comperatore, was killed. Two other attendees were wounded.
Secret Service snipers took out the gunman, identified as a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man named Thomas Matthew Crooks, who unleashed the attack with a rifle from the roof of a building about 150 yards away from the stage.
Multiple investigations ensued, with questions swirling about how law enforcement failed to stop the gunman in Butler before the shooting despite warning signs. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned amid blowback.
