Trump was target of apparent assassination attempt at his Florida golf club, FBI says
The FBI said Sunday it was investigating “what appears to be an attempted assassination” of Donald Trump at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., just nine weeks after the Republican presidential nominee survived another such attempt. Trump said he was safe and well.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said U.S. Secret Service agents fired at a man pointing an AK-style rifle with a scope into the club as Trump was on the course.
Bradshaw said the gunman also had two backpacks hanging on a fence and a GoPro camera, and that he was about 400 yards to 500 yards away (365 to 457 metres) from Trump and hiding in shrubbery while the former president played golf on a nearby hole.
The person dropped the weapon and fled in an SUV, and was later taken into custody in a neighbouring county.
The incident was the latest jarring moment in a campaign year marked by unprecedented upheaval. It occurred roughly two months after Trump was shot during an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania, and a bullet grazed his ear. Only a week later, President Joe Biden withdrew from the race.
In an email to supporters, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumours start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!
“Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!”
The golf course was partially shut down for Trump as he played, and agents were a few holes ahead of him when they noticed the person with the firearm, Bradshaw said. There are several areas around the perimeter of the property where golfers are visible from the fence line.
Secret Service agents and officers in golf carts and on ATVs generally secure the area several holes ahead and behind Trump when he golfs. Agents also usually bring an armoured vehicle onto the course to quickly shelter Trump should a threat arise.
Representatives from the U.S. Secret Service and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office described the moments before members of former U.S. president Donald Trump’s security detail intervened in a suspected assassination attempt at Trump’s golf club on Sunday.
Trump had returned to Florida this weekend from a West Coast swing that included a Friday night rally in Las Vegas and a Utah fundraiser. His campaign had not advised Trump’s plans for Sunday. He often spends the morning playing golf, before having lunch at the club, one of three he owns in the state.
He has had a stepped-up security footprint since the assassination attempt in July. When he has been at Trump Tower in New York, a lineup of dump trucks have parked in a wall outside the building. And at outdoor rallies, he now speaks from behind an enclosure of bulletproof glass.
Trump was returned Sunday to his private Mar-a-Lago club, where he resides in neighbouring Palm Beach, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Suspected apprehended in minutes
Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder said the suspect was apprehended within minutes of the FBI, Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office putting out a “very urgent BOLO” — or “be on the lookout” alert” detailing the specific vehicle sought, license plate number and occupant description.
Snyder said his deputies “immediately flooded” northbound I-95, deploying to every exit between the Palm Beach County line to the south and St. Lucie County line to the north.
“One of my road patrol units saw the vehicle, matched the tag and we set up on the vehicle,” Snyder said, “We pinched in on the car, got it safely stopped and got the driver in custody.”
Snyder told WPTV that the suspect “was not armed when we took him out of the car.”
The man had a calm, flat demeanor and showed little emotion when he was stopped by police, Snyder said, saying the suspect did not question why he was being pulled over.
“He never asked, ‘what is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights, a lot going on. He never questioned it,” Snyder said.
‘Violence has no place in America’
The White House said President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, had both been briefed and would be kept updated on the investigation. The White House added they were “relieved” to know Trump is safe.
Harris, in a statement said she was “glad” Trump was safe, adding that “violence has no place in America.”
In an X post, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Trump’s top congressional allies, said he had spoken with Trump after the incident and that Trump was in “good spirits” and was “one of the strongest people I’ve ever known.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland has been briefed on the situation and is receiving regular updates about it, a Justice Department spokesperson said.
A message sent to campaign officials seeking information on the security status and location of Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, was not immediately returned.
Published at Sun, 15 Sep 2024 19:17:01 +0000
WARNING: This story contains a graphic image of death
Hussam Abu Ajwa, 43, holds two bloodstained pink rollerskates in his hands. They’re the last gift he ever bought his daughter, Tala.
The 10-year-old died on Sept. 4 in Gaza City while rollerblading in her neighbourhood. Her father says she was killed by an Israeli airstrike on a residential building near where the family lives.
An image of the child, wrapped in a white shroud with pink skates sticking out, went viral online soon after.
“That day, she insisted [on playing outside] and I agreed,” Abu Ajwa said in a video that was shared with CBC.
“But … the [Israeli] occupation’s missiles are faster than the kids who want to play and be happy.”
Over 10,000 children have been killed in the last 11 months of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the United Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which uses the Gaza Health Ministry’s figures. The numbers aren’t broken out by cause of death.
The Israel Defence Forces said it was “unaware of a specific strike” in the co-ordinates that CBC provided, but it did say it struck a “Hamas sniper from the Zeitoun battalion” that day in the general vicinity of that area.
“I hope to God that Tala’s blood has a role in stopping the war,” Abu Ajwa said.
“And Tala will be the last child to die without reason.”
‘All I could see was blood on her skates’
Tala is the latest of the casualties of the war, which started after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 people and saw 250 hostages taken into Gaza, by Israeli figures. Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza has killed nearly 41,000 people, according to Palestinian counts.
Abu Ajwa lamented his decision to cave and let Tala go outside and play, but he told El Saife that they were in a safe area in the north, and he didn’t want to add to the child’s burdens as she lived through the war.
Tala Abu Ajwa, 10, died while rollerblading near her home in northern Gaza after a strike in the area. Her father, Hussam, described her as an energetic girl who loved to write and dreamed of peace, and said he hopes her death will not be in vain. ‘I hope that Tala’s blood and Tala’s martyrdom is what will stop this war, and it would be the end of the children who are martyred,’ he said.
While Tala was outside, Abu Ajwa said he heard an explosion, sending him running to find her. Along with a crowd that had formed to help, he pulled his daughter out of a pile of rubble.
“I went out … all I could see was blood on her skates.”
After the family found her body, they rushed her to a nearby hospital. Her little body lay on a stretcher, her jeans drenched in blood, skates still strapped to her feet. Doctors treated the child as her father sobbed.
Tala succumbed to her injuries, and died in the hospital shortly after arriving.
Videos of the little girl skating in circles in her neighbourhood quickly spread on social media, alongside photos, taken after her death, of her pink skates hanging out of the white shroud that contained her body.
“We want our kids to play like the children of the world, and be happy like the children of the world,” Abu Ajwa said.
On Aug. 27, OCHA said the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for more than 19 neighbourhoods in northern Gaza and in Deir al-Balah, where over 8,000 people are sheltering. Eighty-nine per cent of Gaza was under such an order as of Sept. 9, according to the UN office.
Among those sheltering in that area was Tala and her family. Abu Ajwa said they were displaced “seven or eight times,” going between friends’ and relatives’ houses, and even staying with strangers.
Each time, he said, he would try to convince Tala to only take the important things with her for the long road ahead. But with every displacement, Tala was adamant about having her skates with her.
“She would say, ‘No, I want to take the skates so I can play,'” he said. “She was very attached to her toys and her things.”
‘Simple dreams’
In the hospital courtyard, Tala’s body lay on the ground as her parents bid their final farewells to her. Her mother, Hadeel, embraced her, kissing her face as tears rolled down her own. She whispered to her, hoping for an answer that would never come.
Holding back tears, Abu Ajwa said his daughter wanted to be a dentist when she grew up so she could treat her father in his old age.
“‘It would be free, dad, don’t worry,'” he said she would tell him.
One of her favourite hobbies was writing letters, he said, which along with her younger brother, she would give to her father.
Her letters detailed her “simple dreams” of going for car rides, eating out and going to the beach.
“To other people, these are not dreams, these are basics,” he said. “[But] to the children of Gaza, these are dreams.
“And as you see, Tala’s dreams didn’t come true.”
Published at Sat, 14 Sep 2024 15:17:31 +0000
