Update: Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach, says it will be “tough to charge” the gunman who attempted to assassinate Trump.
A deranged Florida man was arrested following an alleged attempted assassination of the former President on Sunday.
The incident occurred outside Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, where Trump was playing a round of golf with friends.
Aronberg said it will be difficult to file charges against the gunman because he was more than 300 yards away from Trump and he never fired a shot. 300 yards is the length of a football field.
“You could charge someone with various crimes, perhaps an attempted murder, without having a shot fired,” said Aronberg. “If you’ve gone through the planning and have, you know, done something substantial to effectuate that. So you don’t have to have a shot fired. But because the former president was so far away, 305 hundred yards away on a different hole, I think it’s going to be tough to charge him with the crime against Trump.”
Aronberg said it would be “much easier to charge him with a crime against a Secret service agent who apparently saw the rifle pointed at him. That’s the key witness here. And that would be perhaps the most serious charge.”
READ ALSO: Trump: ‘I was shot with a bullet that pierced my ear’
A Secret Service agent making his rounds at the perimeter of the golf course spotted 2 black backpacks hanging on a fence and an AR-style rifle with its muzzle poking through the fence. There was also a GoPro camera hanging on the fence.
The Secret Service agent opened fire at the fence, hitting the backpacks 4 times.
Trump was tackled by Secret Service agents after the 4 shots rang out. But the shots were fired by another agent.
Trump, 78, was reportedly upset that his tee time was interrupted by the Secret Service agents. The former president was not injured during the incident.
Ryan Routh, 58, was later pulled over by Florida police officers after he fled the scene in a black Nissan SUV.
His son, Oren Routh, described him as “a loving and caring father,” and that the allegations sounded “nothing like him.”
Routh’s social media accounts were scrubbed by X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook late Sunday.
His bizarre rants portrayed a mentally unstable man who called on Republicans Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy to team up against Trump to create a “winning ticket now that we can all get behind.”
In other posts, Routh tried to recruit fighters for Ukraine and he described North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as “very smart and educated.”
Fox News’ Sean Hannity spoke to Trump after the incident at Trump International Golf Club.
“They heard pop, pop, pop, pop,” Hannity said.
“Within seconds, the Secret Service pounced on the president and 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 added.
But the shots were fired by an agent, not by Routh.
Routh is in police custody. He will be held without bail.
The assassination attempt comes 2 months after a lone 20-year-old gunman fired 8 shots at Trump as he spoke at an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania. One bullet grazed Trump’s ear.
The gunman was shot and killed by a police sniper.
Trump thanked his supporters for their concern in a tweet on Monday.
I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes – It was certainly an interesting day! Most importantly, I want to thank the U.S. Secret Service, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his Office of brave and dedicated Patriots, and, all of Law Enforcement, for the incredible…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2024
