VP candidates head to GA after gunfire near Trump’s golf course

ATLANTA — On Monday morning, U.S. Secret Service agents will be conducting security sweeps around Cobb Galleria.

Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance is expected to be there Monday night for the Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual dinner.

On Tuesday, agents plan to be in Atlanta. Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz is expected to show up for campaign events there in the afternoon.

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Party leaders in metro Atlanta said Sunday night that they have not heard of any cancellations since the shooting at former President Donald Trump’s golf club in Florida.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement Sunday, “The FBI has responded to West Palm Beach, Florida, and is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.”

“Immediately, there was information put out for those who were at campaign offices and that kind of thing to be alert and take precautions,” Salleigh Grubbs told Channel 2′s Courtney Francisco.

Grubbs is Chairwoman of the Cobb County Republican Party. She’s one of those preparing to greet Sen. Vance on Monday.

“I’m not concerned about JD Vance’s safety and security. I know they’ll take appropriate precautions,” Grubb said. “I am concerned, just in general, for the state of our country right now. This is a very important election.”

Two months ago, she was discussing an attempted assassination at a Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The bullet hit the former president in the ear.

“It’s not normal. It’s highly abnormal,” Grubbs said.

“The FBI is investigating this incident as an act of political violence, and we’re grateful nobody was hurt,” Georgia’s Democratic Party Chair Congresswoman Nikema Williams said. “Georgia Democrats unequivocally condemn political violence of any kind.”

Retired Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service Atlanta Field Office Ray Moore said he spoke to his colleagues in Florida minutes after the shooting. That’s when he learned the gunfire golfers heard came from a secret service agent’s gun.

“When you’re working protection on a golf course, you have a forward team and a follow team, and you also have a team that is working parallel to him as he moves along the golf course,” said Moore. “That forward team is the one that saw something in bushes, in the tree line.”

Investigators said what they saw was the barrel of an AK-47. Moore said an agent approached and shouted. He shot at the person hiding but missed.

“He dropped his weapon, ran through the tree line, jumped in his car, and started heading north,” Moore said.

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A person who saw it took a picture of the license plate. Deputies said they used that to pull over the SUV in a neighboring county. They arrested the suspect on Interstate 95.

Moore said the Secret Service has added agents to each candidate after the July shooting in Pennsylvania.

“The mitigation in this case apparently worked,” Moore said.

Congress formed a task force after the July shooting. That task force is calling for a briefing from the U.S. Secret Service this week.

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