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Donald Trump Subject Of An Apparent Second Assassination Attempt, FBI Investigates; Witness Took Photo Of Suspect's Car; Possible Suspect In Custody. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired September 15, 2024 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
(BEGIN LIVE VIDEO)
RIC BRADSHAW, SHERIFF, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA: Okay, guys, are you ready? Little rules of the road like we always talk about ahead of time. We are going to give you, when I say we, we have a representative from the FBI, from the Secret Service, from the State Attorney's Office.
We are going to give you everything we have. Everything. All right? So when we get done, think about your questions because we're not going to take a lot. And keep them to the information that you heard. Don't get into what ifs and because of this. We're not gonna go there, all right? So keep that in mind and we'll be good.
So here we go. All right, 1:30 this afternoon, call came out, shots fired. That was called in by the Secret Service. Because we're in constant contact with them all the time, we were notified of that and we had units here that immediately sealed off the area. Fortunately, we were able to locate a witness that came to us and said, hey, I saw the guy running out of the bushes. He jumped into a black Nissan, and I took a picture of the vehicle and the tag, which was great.
So we had that information, our real time crime center put it out to the license plate readers. And we were able to get a hit on that vehicle on I-95 as it was headed into Martin County. 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. After that, we took the victim, I'm sorry, the witness that witnessed the incident, flew him up there and he identified as the person that he saw running out of the bushes that jumped into the car.
Now, in the bushes where this guy was is an AK-47 style rifle with a scope, two backpacks which were hung on the fence that had a ceramic tile in them, and a GoPro which he was going to take pictures of. So those are being processed right now. The Secret Service agent that was on the course did a fantastic job. What they do is they have an agent that jumps one hole ahead of time to where the President was at. And he was able to spot this rifle barrel sticking out of the fence and immediately engage that individual, at which time the individual took off.
So that's what we know about the investigation. We have somebody in custody right now that is a potential suspect. We got a little bit more work to do on it. But as we usually do, as soon as we decide that we're gonna book him into the county jail and the charges that he's gonna be booked into, we'll get those to you and we'll get a picture of him and we'll get you his background. So now I'm gonna turn it over to the representative of the Secret Service and he's gonna make a brief statement.
RAFAEL BARROS, SPECIAL AGENT, SECRET SERVICE MIAMI FIELD OFFICE: Good afternoon, everyone. I first want to thank all of our law enforcement partners to include the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office and the Martin County Sheriff's Office for their involvement today. Former President Donald Trump is safe and unharmed following a protective incident shortly before 2:00 p.m. on Sunday at Trump International Golf Club at West Palm Beach. The U.S. Secret Service personnel opened fire on a gunman located near the property line, and this matter is under investigation. I'll turn it over to my partners over at the FBI.
JEFFREY VELTRI, SPECIAL AGENT, FBI MIAMI: Good afternoon, everyone, my name is Jeffrey Veltri. I'm the special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami Field Office. The FBI has assumed the role as the lead federal law enforcement agency in the investigation of the incident that occurred earlier today at Trump International Golf Course here in West Palm Beach, Florida. We've deployed a number of resources, including investigative teams, crisis response team members, bomb technicians and evidence response team members as well.
What we need right now is for the public to avoid the area around the golf course. We will continue to support this investigation with the full resources of the FBI, alongside our partners with the United States Secret Service and the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, as well as Martin County Sheriff's Office and state and local law enforcement. I would ask that if anyone has any information that may assist with this investigation, to contact our tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI or at tips, that's tips.fbi.gov. Thank you.
[17:04:58]
DAVE ARONBERG, STATE ATTORNEY, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA: Hi, I'm Dave Aronberg, State Attorney for Palm Beach County. I want to thank Sheriff Bradshaw and our partners at the local, state, and federal levels. I'm here because our prosecutors are currently working up warrants and a motion for pretrial detention for the suspect. In that way, he will be kept in custody.
But our filing of these warrants and charges at the state level does not preclude federal charges that could be coming. But in the meantime, it looks like the warrants and the pretrial detention motion will happen first. And again, I want to thank the cooperation we've had with our federal partners and at the local level. And thank you all for being here today.
BRADSHAW: Okay, we're going to make these pictures available to you. It'll show you a picture of the backpack and the rifle. And there's also a GoPro on the fence there where he was intent on filming what was going on. Even though we're going to have to secure a couple of areas around the golf course here, the public doesn't need to panic. We know that we got a post office, a library, and a school down the
street. So we'll make it convenient for you to get to all the places you need to go, get your kids to school, get them over here to the post office or wherever else you need to go.
It's safe, there's no more danger here, and we'll make it very convenient for you. So having said that, we're gonna take a very limited amount of questions and you can direct them to who you want to answer the question.
UNKNOWN: Sir, (inaudible) the statement as he was being detained?
BRADSHAW: No statement right now as far as his involvement in the incident and there is further investigation to be completed.
UNKNOWN: What was his (inaudible)?
UNKNOWN: Yeah, I'm not sure if maybe (inaudible) answered. I (inaudible) that there was a rifle, so one of your agents saw, on the golf course saw, a white (inaudible) fence with a chain (ph). So he saw that, the agent?
BARROS: That is correct, yes.
UNKNOWN: And the president, or the former president (inaudible).
BARROS: It was one or two holes behind.
UNKNOWN: Understood.
BARROS: That --- because the bubble moves through the golf course. So our agents will get their first, clear it. He noticed that the rifle was pointing out, our agents engaged. 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 with the suspect (ph).
UNKNOWN: Was he hit?
BARROS: I don't know yet.
BRADSHAW: That appears so. Yep. Back.
UNKNOWN: How far away was the president? How far away was Donald Trump when this gentleman was caught and stopped?
BRADSHAW: Probably between three and five hundred yards, but with a rifle and a scope like that, that's not a long distance.
UNKNOWN: For the Secret Service, how far was your agent from the would be assailant?
BARROS: That I'm not sure right now. We're still looking into it.
UNKNOWN: Reports of the four rounds of a condition (ph) for fire, all four of those from your agents?
BARROS: That is correct, four to six, we're not sure yet.
UNKNOWN: Was there a long distance --
BARROS: Yes.
BRADSHAW: Yes, ma'am.
UNKNOWN: (Inaudible) tell us today what happened and for future reference is driving up security (inaudible).
BRADSHAW: I did not hear a word. Say that one more time and talk up a little bit.
UNKNOWN: So, how is this able to happen? And for future reference, is there any other security on the golf course?
BRADSHAW: Well, you got to understand, the golf course is surrounded by shrubbery. So when somebody gets into the shrubbery, they're pretty much out of sight. All right. And at this level that he is at right now, he's not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had the entire golf course surrounded.
Well, because he's not, the security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible. So I would imagine that the next time he comes at a golf course, there'll probably be a little more people around the perimeter. But the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done. They provided exactly what the protection should have been, and their agent did a fantastic job.
UNKNOWN: Which direction was the shrub really was, north, south? I guess east, west, or south, south of the road? (ph)
BRADSHAW: The layout of the golf course, you've got three holes, five, six, and seven, right? One of them runs parallel to Summit Boulevard, one of them runs parallel to Congress. And he was in an area in the shrubbery where he could see both holes. So the president was another hole back, which means he's about between four and 500 yards away.
UNKNOWN: So he was on the golf course --
BRADSHAW: Oh, he's on the golf course, yeah, but he's back a ways.
UNKNOWN: For the Secret Service, have you guys changed at all the way that the guys are protecting former President Donald Trump, his now second, potentially second attempt on him. Can you just elaborate on how things have changed and what you may call this?
[17:10:00]
BARROS: Yes, the threat level is high. We have increased the amount of assets that we've supported, so we are -- we live in danger times, so yes.
BRADSHAW: We're done with questions right now. There's really nothing more for us to add. I just want to tell you, the Secret Service and the FBI and the State Attorney's Office have been fantastic to work with. And I can tell you right now, our agency with this real time crime center was fabulous. That's how we got the guy. We started out with we don't know anything to where we had a tag, we had a vehicle description, and we got an area where we saw the person. So be proud of your law enforcement. Alright, thanks folks, we'll get back to you.
(END LIVE VIDEO)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: So there you have the Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw updating us. Kaitlan, we learned some important information about this suspect. He was presumably, they said at one point, between 300 and 500 yards away. Trump was playing golf at his golf course there. He was apparently walking between hole number five and hole number six. And the suspect with this AK-47 style rifle.
And we did learn it did have a scope. So even though he was 300 to 500 yards away from Trump, with the law enforcement we just heard from this briefing, that is not a far distance for this type of AK-47 with a scope, which is pretty chilling when you think about that. So we got a little bit more information there and the suspect is in custody. We heard from the Palm Beach County attorney, Dave Aronberg, saying they're working now on some state charges, but there will be presumably federal charges as well.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Yeah, I mean, Wolf, the sequence of events that officials just laid out is nothing short of stunning. What you heard from the Palm Beach County Sheriff, what you heard from Secret Service there, and they basically confirmed CNN's reporting but also gave us a few more details, which is that a witness was later was able to identify the person that they have taken into custody. They referred to him as a potential suspect. They said that he fled from the bushes outside of Trump's course after he was -- after the Secret Service had engaged him.
And what they said was that the Secret Service basically, when Trump is golfing, they travel one hole, one or two holes ahead of him in a protective measure. And a Secret Service agent was able to see the barrel of the rifle, that AK-47 that they later found in the bushes, sticking out from those bushes and then engaged with this person who then dropped the gun apparently and ran and jumped into what they said was a black Nissan.
A witness was later able to confirm that yes, the person they later apprehended in that Nissan was the person they saw running out of the bushes and Wolf, they said that they found in the bushes, not only that AK-47 gun with the scope as you noted there, but also two backpacks and a GoPro that the sheriff then followed up and said was attached to the fence. So the person apparently intent on recording whatever was happening there in that.
And it's just remarkable that an agent was able to see that rifle barrel, to engage with this person before Donald Trump came up to that hole on this golf course. They said the Secret Service did exactly what they should. That person is in custody. And a remarkable statement there when a reporter asked the Secret Service official who was on hand about security measures being ramped up after what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania. And he talked about the number of protectees that they now have in their custody and said simply, we live in dangerous times, Wolf.
BLITZER: Very dangerous times indeed. And I've heard repeatedly from law enforcement sources that their fear is the threats are only going to continue as this political campaign goes on. We have no idea what, if any, motive this suspect that they've apprehended now may have had, but there's a lot of concern given the fact that this is now what the FBI publicly describes as a second assassination attempt against the former president of the United States.
Charles Ramsey, Chief Ramsey, give me your thoughts on what we just heard.
CHARLES RAMSAY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I mean, there was a lot of information that came out -- 1:30 is when shots were fired by Secret Service. It's still unclear whether or not the individual was able to get a shot off or not. Doesn't sound like they were unless they were firing at the Secret Service, but the Secret Service definitely saw him. And you had a witness that actually saw an individual run out of the shrubbery, get into a car, and had the presence of mind to take a photograph of the car and the tag. I mean, without that, this person probably would still be out there and police would be searching for him.
[17:15:00]
So that witness really deserves an awful lot of credit. We know that it was an AK-47 firearm -- rifle, with a scope. which makes it even more dangerous than it would normally be. And that the FBI is the lead now on this and that information from the FBI that came out now officially saying, this looks like an attempted assassination. Again, just two months ago, we were talking about this in Butler, Pennsylvania, and here we are again.
This individual was equipped and ready to film, probably live stream maybe, who knows? That's the world we're in right now. And I think the Secret Service sack -- said it right, these are dangerous times right now and its straining resources of Secret Service. U.S. Marshals Service, we never talk about the Marshals Service, but the Marshals Service resources are strained for protecting individuals that don't fall under Secret Service protection.
So these are just very, very dangerous times. That perimeter was not secure. In the future, I imagine it will be, but still that Secret Service agent was able to spot the barrel of the gun and prevent a tragedy from occurring.
BLITZER: All right. Stand by, Chief Ramsey. Andrew McCabe is with us as well, former Deputy Director of the FBI, CNN Law Enforcement Analyst. We're showing our viewers on the right side of the screen some pictures that they just released at this news conference. The backpack, two backpacks that were found, including a GoPro that was in one of the backpacks, including this AK-47 with a scope.
That means they can target somebody from a distance, a far distance, and AK-47 has an enormous range. And with a scope, you can actually target someone for assassination. The FBI is now calling this, Andrew, an attempted assassination. It appears to be, in their words, I'll give you exactly what they said, "what appears to be an attempted assassination of Trump. This would be the second time in the past two months of an attempted assassination of the former president of the United States." Give us your thoughts, Andrew.
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, it is definitely an attempted assassination, Wolf. I mean, we'll have to see what the suspect ultimately says and if the FBI investigation is successful in unearthing some evidence of his motives. But I think it's pretty fair to say, we know likely what he was trying to accomplish there, hiding in the bushes outside the golf club.
As Chief Ramsey mentioned, you know, once again, this is the second time. that we have averted a disaster and really, we got really lucky on two counts this time. One is of course that the Secret Service officer noticed the barrel of a gun sticking through that chain link fence. And imagine this, you're standing on a golf course, you're looking to the fence, behind the fence is all kinds of different shrubbery and bushes and trees and things like that.
That barrel of the gun typically would blend right into that background. So, what an amazing kind of heads up ever vigilant approach by that Secret Service officer. And then the second huge break was the witness. So, a witness who happens to see the guy running out of the woods and has the presence of mind to take a photograph of the vehicle he gets in and the license plate on the vehicle. So that's what enabled the very quick response by law enforcement to identify him on 95 heading north fleeing the area and of course taking him into custody.
As for the AK-47, I mean, it's a very capable rifle. It shoots a fairly large -- a bullet that the AK-47 shoots is larger and more powerful than what we normally see in the weapons that are used at mass shooting events, the weapon that was used at Butler, the AR-15. The bullet from the AK-47 is about similar to a .30 caliber round, which is the round that's used by law enforcement snipers. So could it travel 500 yards accurately? Absolutely.
The scope helps the shooter shoot accurately. It's going to take a little bit of training and practice to get somebody to deliver around like that accurately at that distance, but certainly within the realm of possibility. We don't know if this individual had any law enforcement or back -- or a military background, if he's got any shooting or marksmanship in his background, but those are all things that the that the FBI will be looking into.
Because we have a live shooter unlike Butler, this is a case that's going to be, and an investigation that's going to be driving towards prosecuting this individual successfully and putting him to jail for a long time. So you can bet that we'll see search warrants executed later on this evening.
We'll see a lot of FBI folks at his residence, maybe at his work. You'll see that vehicle impounded and searched, and they are going to be looking for all of the pieces of evidence that might indicate planning, motive, and whether or not any other individuals knew about what he was doing and may have helped him or helped him plan or anything like that.
[17:20:05]
BLITZER: In addition to the scope on that AK-47 rifle, which was intended, according to the FBI, for an assassination of the former president, the fact that they found his GoPro equipment in one of the backpacks as well suggests to me, and I wonder, Andrew, if it suggests to you that this suspect had some political motive, wanted publicity, wanted to get a lot of exposure for what was going on.
MCCABE: It certainly indicates to me that he was looking for exposure. What we've learned through so many of these mass shootings and episodes of political violence, sometimes it can be very hard to identify a specific political motive. For instance, case in point is the Butler shooter. With this point, we still have not unearthed a very clear -- I mean, clearly, he was trying to kill Donald Trump, but a strong ideological reason for doing so they haven't been able to identify that yet. So we'll see if we find that here.
But no question, Wolf, you're absolutely right. The presence of the GoPro is an effort to preserve the images of this attack so that the shooter could use that for some purpose in the future. Either to pump up his own image and glorification online, things of that nature. We know that mass shooters do that a lot. It's very important to them to communicate their success, their attack online, may have just been that, or it may have been some ideologically motivated, politically motivated act.
Right now, it's super early in the investigation, but Those are definitely the things we're gonna be looking to hear from the FBI as they learn more.
BLITZER: And is the FBI, Andrew, and your former deputy director of the FBI, is the FBI now in charge of this investigation? Not the Secret Service, not the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, it's the FBI which is in charge? Is that right?
MCCABE: They absolutely are, Wolf. As you know, under presidential directive 12333, the FBI has primary responsibility for investigating any acts of terrorism here in the United States. This would certainly be considered an act of terrorism, possibly domestic terrorism, although again, we'll wait and see as we get more details about this shooter. But absolutely, the FBI would be the lead agency.
And that doesn't mean they'll do it by themselves. They clearly will work very closely with the Secret Service and also with the Palm Beach County and Martin County Sheriff's Offices. But you will see the Bureau kind of taking the kind of the lead role on the execution of search warrants, the collection of evidence, preservation of evidence. And then I would expect pretty soon you're gonna hear about Southern District of Florida prosecutors weighing in as to whether or not this person will also be charged at the federal level.
BLITZER: Yeah, I suspect that will happen. And we did hear Dave Aronberg, the Palm Beach County attorney suggesting that there would be probably state charges, local charges, as well as eventually federal charges as well. I suspect that's what's going on right now. All right, Andrew McCabe, everyone else, stand by. Kaitlan, we're getting a lot of information right now to digest and I presumably believe in the next few minutes and hours, we're gonna get a whole lot more.
COLLINS: Yeah, well, that was a remarkable update that we got from officials and that detail, that a Secret Service agent who was advancing Donald Trump on the golf course was able to spot the barrel, that rifle poking through the bushes and was able to protectively fire a shot at that person inside the bushes where Donald Trump got to that whole on the golf course.
What you're looking at here is to backpacks and a GoPro attached to the fence that officials found in the area of that bushes that the individual fled after the Secret Service had an exchange with him. Wolf, we are continuing to learn more as we are watching all of this. I do want to note we have heard from J.D. Vance. He just posted on Twitter saying that he spoke to Donald Trump before this information of what the FBI is now saying appears to be an attempted second assassination.
J.D. Vance says, quote, "I'm glad President Trump is safe. I spoke to him before the news was public and he was amazingly in good spirits. Still much we don't know, but I'll be hugging my kids extra tight tonight and saying a prayer of gratitude." We'll continue with our live coverage of this -- as the FBI puts it, an apparent attempted -- a second assassination attempt of Donald Trump. We're learning more from our sources and from officials. We're going to take a quick break and be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:25:00]
COLLINS: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Kaitlan Collins, alongside my colleague, Wolf Blitzer. This is CNN's special coverage. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. We are continuing our breaking news live coverage after the FBI says it is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.
We are told the former president is safe after shots were fired in his vicinity while he was golfing at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida. That's just about a 15-minute drive from where his Mar-a-Lago club is in Palm Beach, Florida. Moments ago, we got an account from the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office detailing how all of this unfolded, Wolf, and it is quite stunning.
[17:30:01]
BLITZER: It's stunning and very detailed. In fact, very, very revealing. Law enforcement officials saying a person has been detained in connection with this incident that occurred at the Trump International Golf Club around 1:30 p.m. Eastern earlier this afternoon. U.S. Secret Service agents fired gunshots at the suspect who they believe was armed and intended to target former President Trump. An AK-style long-arm rifle with a scope, two backpacks, and a GoPro camera were recovered.
Let's go to our panel right now and get Charles Ramsey's assessment of what's going on. The fact that there was a scope, Chief Ramsey, it says to me, it explains, I think in part, why the FBI has concluded this appears to have been a second assassination attempt against Trump.
RAMSEY: Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, clearly in my mind anyway, that's the appropriate classification for this particular incident. We're just fortunate. We're very lucky. We were lucky in July in Butler, Pennsylvania and again today. But luck only goes so far.
And so, everyone has to be incredibly vigilant, enhance security not just for the former president but for all of the candidates because we're just in an environment right now where you have a lot of unstable people who apparently are not afraid to try to actually harm someone. So, we're very fortunate that the Secret Service agent was able to spot this and able to take immediate action and prevent a tragedy from occurring.
BLITZER: And that Secret Service agent spotted what? The barrel of a rifle sticking out from those trees near that golf course right there and that's when the shots were fired at the suspect. And eventually, another individual saw what was going on and took some pictures of the vehicle that the suspect was using, the license plate. And eventually, the suspect was captured in Martin County, just north of Palm Beach County, not very far away.
Jonathan Wackrow, the fact that there was a GoPro camera that was right near that fence, near those backpacks that this suspect had over there, what does that say to you?
JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Well, listen, Wolf, I think that a lot of these elements, you know, speak to an elevated level of sophistication by this shooter, right? So, you know, the GoPro camera was -- the intent here, to live stream, you know, this attack.
By the fact that we saw those -- you know, we heard reporting that, I believe we heard it during the press conference as well, that the backpacks contain ceramic plates. Again, you know, this was, you know, really setting up a firing position. The shooter probably intended to, you know, engage directly, you know, with Secret Service agents at one point.
I think the Secret Service structure, though, the protective methodology, by putting out agents in advance of the protectee during their golf operations to really flush out this type of threat along the edges of the fairways, really proved successful.
This is a model that the Secret Service has applied to these types of activities for a long time. I mean, dating back to, I believe, the Bush and Clinton administrations where, you know, putting agents, you know, anywhere from 75 to 150 yards in advance, again, trying to expand out that, you know, protective bubble around the protectee just for this very reason, you know.
But it's difficult. I mean, they're out there, you know, flanking, you know, the protectee for a long time. This person obviously set up their location. They had a level of cover and concealment to launch this attack. They most likely had a line of sight from that fence line back into the fairway. That's disturbing. And, you know, more troubling is the accessibility, the ease of ingress and egress by this attacker. They had that escape route.
The critical factor that we heard during the press conference is the witness. They saw the suspect running away, getting into the vehicle. And I think Andy McCabe said, you know, very smartly, the person took out their phone, took a picture of the car, and then got the license plate.
The communication with federal, state, and local law enforcement entities through the real-time crime center got that information out almost instantaneously. And utilizing license plate readers, they were able to track the direction of the vehicle, make the -- make the vehicle stop and get the suspect in custody without incident.
So, this is a real big success for law enforcement and it all centers around, you know, the coordination, the rapid coordination of information and dissemination to all stakeholders.
[17:34:55]
We heard that during the press conference. It was great to see everybody reassuring the public that there's no additional danger and that all stakeholders within the law enforcement and prosecutorial community were represented there.
BLITZER: And you can see how close this golf club is to Interstate 95, a major highway going all through the state of Florida, all the way up the --
COLLINS: And Wolf --
BLITZER: -- East Coast as well. Kaitlan, go ahead.
COLLINS: While we're looking at this, I just want to keep this image up because you're seeing Trump International Golf Course right here. We're highlighting Hole 5 and Hole 6 because that's where we believe Trump was getting close to when the agents were walking ahead of him. And what's remarkable about this is they were talking about the three roads that are the access points.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is right there to your top right, a little bit above where Hole 5 is. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and the jail actually backs up to Donald Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
And just to give you a sense of what we were looking at on the ground and how quickly officials were able to move here and they put out that "be on the lookout" alert for the person that the witness luckily was able to see a person leaving the bushes, emerging and getting into a black car and then driving, which they apprehended on I-95 just north of Palm Beach County, and what we're looking at here on this image.
And so, John Miller, when you look at this and what we've heard from officials, they would not say outright that they have a suspect in custody, but the sheriff said, John Miller, that they have a potential suspect in custody. And so, when that is the case and they have someone that they are obviously questioning, what we were told earlier is that this person has not made any statements yet, but they did describe a calm demeanor earlier when we were hearing from the Martin County Sheriff about actually apprehending this person and turning them over to the FBI, what does this look like behind the scenes right now?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, he is definitely a suspect and he is definitely in custody. And all the qualifiers that law enforcement uses, potential suspect, person of interest, once the state's attorney took the podium at the press conference and said, we are preparing charges and we are preparing for a detention hearing where they're going to argue that this suspect is dangerous and a flight risk, that means he is on his way to being charged here.
Some of the mechanics behind that, Kaitlan, were there was that witness on the scene that we've all talked about. He snapped that picture. He saw that person. And there's a Secret Service agent who may have confronted him and seen him as well.
But that witness was brought to the scene and they did what we call a show up where, you know, they have him in a vehicle where he can look out at the person in custody and he's asked, is that the person you saw? And he answered in the affirmative, we are told by law enforcement sources, as he did that show up, and they then took him into custody, impounded that car and so on.
Um, there are, you know, two different stories in the forefront here. One, as Jonathan Wackrow really well explained, is a combination of old-fashioned police work, shoe leather, grab a witness, combined with modern technology, here's a picture, here's a plate, put it into the LPR, License Plate Reader system, look for the first hit, it hits on 95. RTCC, the Real-Time Crime Center, is spinning the registered owner of that car, who it belongs to. All of this is happening rapidly.
And Martin County, which hasn't waited, it has already flooded 95 looking for that car heading south with units, then does that vehicle containment technique. They block the car in on three sides, come out with long guns.
And when the sheriff describes -- the sheriff's (INAUDIBLE) of Martin County describes his calm demeanor, we have to put that in context. When the suspect gets out of that Nissan vehicle, he is looking at multiple AR-15s and hand guns pointed at him from multiple directions in this vehicle containment technique where they've blocked him in on three sides. So, he can be nothing but calm, and he was compliant with the commands they gave him, and then he was taken into custody. So, a lot went right today. A lot came together.
COLLINS: Well, and Andrew McCabe, when you -- when you look at this, and Wolf and I was just thinking of this, when you look at what we're here for officials and you see those two pictures there of the backpacks that were -- that were left at the scene that they found inside these bushes to the -- on the right side of this -- of your screen, on the left, that's a -- that's a GoPro camera, official said, that was mounted on the fence, and then two bags as well.
Andrew McCabe, when you're an investigator and you're looking into that, I mean, it clearly speaks to some kind of premeditation here of what they're looking into when they're talking to this suspect who was in the bushes.
[17:40:02]
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: There's no question, Kaitlan. You know, Jonathan mentioned this a little bit earlier. This whole setup indicates a very high level of pre-planning. And that is done because this person, whoever he is, clearly had the capacity to engage in that sort of structured and organized thought, which is a big piece of this because that will undermine and that can undermine a lot of different defenses at trial.
So, you have someone who had the wherewithal, the financial ability and the kind of cognitive ability to go out and acquire these things: the weapon, the backpacks, the ceramic plates. If those are, in fact, ceramic plates, ceramic plates are used to augment a bulletproof vest to make it resist actually high-powered rifle bullets. So, this is someone who went through a lot of effort to really plan this out.
I think we also have to remember that they somehow knew where to go. They had some indication maybe that Trump was playing golf on this day. We don't know that for a fact yet, but that's something that investigators are going to be looking for. Obviously, picked this location as one of tactical advantage, likely because of the cover provided by the -- by the foliage and the bushes that he was hiding himself with. Probably had some advanced knowledge of how the golf courses laid out and where the former president would be proceeding from one hole to another. So, this is all a very high degree of planning, which is great evidence for the prosecution.
And finally, just recovering these backpacks with the stuff in them and the vehicle that he was driving in when he was arrested. You have a gold mine of evidence here, forensic evidence, that will tie, likely, this person they arrested to that backpack in that place with the weapon at the same time. So, all those little pieces come together. They all seem to be likely lining up in a very damning way for this person, and that's what the investigators and the prosecutors should be looking at next.
BLITZER: And Andrew, a very quick question before we let you go. They said at the briefing that the suspect with his rifle, the AK-47 with a scope, was between 300 and 500 yards away from Trump. But then they said that is not a far distance given the capability of this AK-47 with a scope. You agree with that, that that's not a far distance?
MCCABE: It's not a far distance. The rifle is definitely capable of it. The scope makes it easier to do. It's still going to require some degree of training and practice on the part of the shooter, but that's not hard to do in this country, right? A lot of people engage in that sort of stuff, shooting sports and things like that.
So, yeah, this is definitely a possible shot for a decently trained marksman. So -- and it has also been done before. Let's not forget that in 2011, you had Oscar Romero Ortega Hernandez, who fired seven shots at the White House from Constitution Avenue or at least he hit the White House seven times and actually hit some of the windows of the residence on the second floor. We don't know that he actually saw any person or was aiming at a human being, may have just been taking advantage of, you know, trying to get lucky.
But this idea of shooters trying to waylay presidents from a far-off distance is not something new. We have experienced this before in this country. This is an element of political violence that we are familiar with. And so, yeah, these things are possible. We live in a very dangerous world, as the sheriff mentioned. And the easy ability that anyone has to put their hands on an AK-47 or an AR-15 or a hunting rifle for that matter makes this particular threat very important for people like the Secret Service and other security professionals to think about.
BLITZER: Yeah, I remember that incident at the White House. I was reporting from the White House on that day, and I remember how scared all of us were, just the thought that someone from Constitution Avenue could start firing shots at the White House. All of us were there. We were very, very scared. It was a very, very serious moment indeed. All right, Andrew McCabe, everybody else, stand by. Our special breaking news coverage will continue right after a very quick break.
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UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
BLITZER: Welcome back. I'm Wolf Blitzer along with Kaitlan Collins, and we're covering our live coverage of a major breaking news story. The FBI now saying it is investigating an apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump. The former president of the United States says he is safe after shots were fired in his vicinity while golfing at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Kaitlan?
COLLINS: Yeah. Wolf, what we've learned is that it was Secret Service agents who were on that golf course with him that fired gunshots at the suspect, who they believe was armed and intended to target Donald Trump. They recovered an AK-47 style long-armed rifle with a scope, two backpacks, and a GoPro camera, as you can see here from the bushes where this person fled after he was engaged by the Secret Service. Law enforcement officials tell CNN a person has been detained. Authorities have not yet named the suspect who is in custody.
We're following all of this live. We've got all of our experts here and our reporters. [17:50:00]
CNN's Randi Kaye joins me now. Randi, obviously, this is a developing situation. We just heard from this press conference where officials were confirming the timeline of events where Donald Trump was on the golf course when this happened. What more have we learned about how this investigation is progressing?
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kaitlan, this investigation is still very much in the early stages and very much underway. In fact, just a moment ago, before we came on camera here, there was a Palm Beach County sheriff's crime scene van just pulling out of Trump International Golf Club, which is right behind me there. That's the entrance that you see to the golf club where this all happened today.
So, they clearly are still on the scene, still trying to figure out exactly what happened, looking for any clues, perhaps anything that was left behind by this alleged gunman and also perhaps from the Secret Service after they had fired their weapons in his direction. So, still very much underway here in terms of the investigation.
But, Kaitlan, I should tell you, this is a 27-hole golf course. So, what stands out to me from that press conference and the information that we're getting is that they were able to -- the Secret Service was able to see that -- the barrel of the gun coming through that fence between sometime around holes five or six. That is remarkable because this golf course is known for its rolling hills. There's certainly a lot of bunkers, but certainly a lot of cover.
So, this gunman certainly was somewhere where he thought he wasn't going to be seen, apparently. Certainly, didn't come through the front gate. There's a large police presence here and security at the front gate of the International Golf Club. So certainly, he was along the perimeter of it.
And I can tell you that right away, they were able to say, once they apprehended him, that there was no threat to the public. That was very important because there's an elementary school right nearby. There's also a public library right nearby.
And as you know, he was apprehended in Martin County, which is about an hour north of here. And we're just minutes away from Interstate 95 so he was able to make that quick getaway. Luckily, a witness was able to tell authorities what his card looked like and even provide those photos, as we heard in the press conference.
But certainly, still quite a bit of law enforcement presence. It took me about an hour and a half to get here. It normally takes me about 25 minutes. So, there was a lot of police, a lot of barricades along the way, and that still is the case now even though we know that Mar-a- Lago is just about 10 minutes from here, Kaitlan, and we know that the former president has left the golf club and we watched the motorcade depart here. So, he apparently is safely back at Mar-a-Lago but still certainly a lot -- a lot to be figured out here in terms of what it went down today. Kaitlan? COLLINS: Yeah. Randi Kaye, I was told that the Donald Trump is back at his Mar-a-Lago club. Obviously, as you know, about a 15 to 20-minute drive from where that golf course is. Randi Kaye, thank you for that. Wolf?
BLITZER: You know, Kaitlan, I thought it was really interesting. I want our law enforcement experts to assess this. They said at this news conference that we had live here on CNN that they don't see any more danger right now. They think that has been resolved. So even though there was a lot of danger earlier, no more danger, a direct quote from the briefing that just occurred. And Chief Ramsey, what does that say to you?
RAMSEY: Well, I mean, they always have more information than we have right now, but they probably at least feel pretty comfortable that there was no second person or third person directly involved. I'm pretty sure that the person they have in custody is the one that they found there at the -- at the golf course. So, all they feel pretty confident around that and that's why they make a statement like that.
So, again, it is just very fortunate that everything worked very well. That witness cannot get enough credit because they saw that individual leave the bushes and they had the presence of mind to take a photograph so they have not only a description of the car but the actual license tag. And through Real Time Crime Center, of course, they're able to run that very quickly and put a bolo out. That's how he was captured so quickly.
But there are still questions. I mean, when you look at that map, and I'm not familiar with that area at all, but you can see the roadways that go very close to that and that there was no one guarding that perimeter at all. And I just -- it just makes me wonder if that's something obviously in the future that needs to be taken into consideration.
It doesn't look like it would be very difficult to do or make a very manpower intensive looking at that sight line, having a couple cars on either end just to make sure no one parks a car, only gets out of a car, or anything like that when you have the former president on the golf course.
BLITZER: And John Miller, when the law enforcement authorities said there is no more danger out there right now, immediately said to me this suspect was a lone gunman operating on his own, there weren't others who were helping him who could potentially represented danger from outside still at large, I assume that says the same thing to you.
MILLER: Well, it's also a contextual piece, Wolf, because remember, the earliest reports are people calling 911 who, you know, Secret Service agents who were dressed down. They're not in their suits and ties because they're working on a golf course who are shooting an individual fleeing.
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So, the earliest reports were of two people shooting at each other on the perimeter of the golf course, and that suggested the second gunman. Once they sorted out that was the Secret Service agents confronting the suspected sniper, that was able to -- they were able to frame, okay, so it appears we have a lone gunman, it appears he's in custody, and it appears that the threat to the public around that area is greatly reduced. In the same breath, of course, they ask people to stay out of the area because we've got a big crime scene search and they need their space.
BLITZER: Yeah, good point. John Miller and everyone else, stand by. We've got a lot more to report on. We're standing by for more news that we anticipate will be emerging very soon. Kaitlan, back to you.
COLLINS: Yeah, Wolf, a lot of developments coming.
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