Democrat Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a press conference on Sunday following another attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump that law enforcement would take protecting the Republican presidential nominee more seriously if he was the sitting president and not just a candidate.

Bradshaw made the remarks at a press conference following the attempted assassination at Trump International Golf Course West Palm Beach, the second assassination attempt that he has survived in the last two months.

“The golf course is surrounded by shrubbery, so when somebody gets into the shrubbery, they’re pretty much out of sight,” he said in attempting to explain away the security failures that led to another attempt on Trump’s life.

“And at this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president,” he continued. “If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded. But because he’s not, the security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”

Secret Service representative Rafael Barros was asked what, if anything, the Secret Service has done differently to protect Trump after he was shot during an assassination attempt in July.

“The threat level is high,” Barros said. “We have increased the amount of assets that we’ve supported. So we are, we live in danger (sic) times.”

The suspect was armed with an AK-47 and was only a few hundred yards away from Trump when the Secret Service reportedly engaged him, causing him to flee the area.

A witness who saw him get into a vehicle and speed off got a photo of the car and license plate which allowed law enforcement to quickly locate and apprehend the suspect.

WATCH:

Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says that because Trump is not the sitting president that he is not given complete perimeter protection, even though someone shot him just a couple months ago

He said if Trump was president then law enforcement would take protecting him more seriously pic.twitter.com/BXpcHgnFHj

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 15, 2024

Federal and local law enforcement officials released new information Sunday evening about a would be assassin who was allegedly planning on murdering Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as he played golf at Trump International Golf Course West Palm Beach.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said that the Secret Service put out the call that shots had been fired at which point a witness told authorities that they saw a person running out of the bushes, getting into a black Nissan, and driving away.

Because the witness got a photo of the vehicle and license plate, law enforcement was quickly able to locate the vehicle and take the suspect into custody.

“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 ceramic tile in them, and a GoPro, which he was going to take pictures of,” Bradshaw said at the press conference. “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.”

The FBI said that they were investigating “what appears to be an attempted assassination of” the former president, the second time that someone tried to murder him. Trump was shot in the head in July during a political rally in Pennsylvania after the Secret Service failed to provide adequate protection.

The Secret Service said that would be assassin was only one or two holes behind Trump when the confrontation occurred.

Bradshaw added that the suspect was only “between 300-500 yards” away from Trump, and that “with a rifle and a scope like that, that’s not a long distance.”