Donald Trump praised an “amazing” woman motorist who he said followed an alleged gunman as he fled after an apparent assassination attempt on the former president on Sunday, leading to a swift arrest.
In his first public appearance since the incident, the Republican presidential candidate told a crowd that the unnamed civilian “saw something in this guy that was bad.”
She saw the suspect running toward her car and became suspicious, so she followed him in her own vehicle and took pictures of his license plate, Trump said.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested in an SUV less than an hour after allegedly fleeing the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump shared the account Tuesday night at a town hall-style event in Flint, Michigan, with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his former press secretary and now governor of Arkansas.
Trump was brought to safety unharmed after Secret Service agents saw the muzzle of a gun coming through the bushes while the former president was playing a round of golf.
The Republican candidate was about 300–500 yards (275–460 m) away.
An officer fired in the direction of the apparent sniper nest before the suspect dropped the gun and fled in a black Nissan SUV, police said.
“Would you like to know another kind of miracle?” Trump told the crowd after praising the Secret Service. “So the guy’s running for his life right now, and he’s got a car a block away or whatever.”
He added: “And a woman, who was driving in a car, saw a man on the road, a fairly busy road, running.
“And she followed him. And she got in the car. And she stopped because she thought it was a problem. It looked different.
“He followed, it wasn’t very far, and he parked the car behind her car and started taking pictures of her license plate.”
“Seriously, who would do that?” he said, adding that “it was really amazing.”
Trump said he quickly sent those images to authorities.
“Women are smarter than men,” he told the crowd, adding that he would like to meet them.
Routh was stopped by police driving north on I-95.
He appeared in court Monday, charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obstructed serial number. More accounts may follow.
It was apparently the second assassination attempt to target Trump in as many months.