Police: Fitness buff tried ambush attack at Trump resort
DORAL, FLA. » A fitness buff carrying an American flag and shouting about President Donald Trump stormed the hotel lobby of Trump’s Miami-area golf resort early Friday and opened fire at a chandelier. He then waited for police to arrive, and exchanged gunfire with officers who shot him in the legs and arrested him.
The motive for the shooting at Trump National Doral Golf Club around 1:30 a.m. was not immediately clear, but Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said the man pointed his gun at several people and shouted “anti-Trump” rhetoric before waiting for to confront him.
“We don’t know what his intentions were in the long term, but we know what he was doing at the time — he was trying to engage our police officers in some kind of ambush-type attack,” Perez said. police
In plotting the ambush, Perez added, “He did succeed, and he did lose.”
One responding officer broke a wrist, but no resort employees or guests were hurt.
Trump was not at the suburban golf resort at the time.
Perez identified the suspect as 42-year-old Jonathan Oddi, who lives in a condo building about a mile (2 kilometers) away. He said Oddi took a flag from a flagpole at the resort and draped it over the counter in the lobby, where he pointed his gun at several people but only fired into the ceiling and light fixtures overhead until police officers arrived.
Oddi was expected to face various criminal charges. Video footage showed the conscious suspect being wheeled into a hospital on a gurney, and Miami-Dade Police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta said Oddi remained hospitalized in good condition Friday afternoon.
Oddi’s attorney, Rae Shearn, said her client was a fitness instructor. She said it was too early to say anything more. “I am conducting my own investigation and have no statement in regards to what occurred or what didn’t occur or what may have precipitated that event,” she said by phone.
Neighbors and patrons of a nearby gym said they often saw Oddi lifting weights, but rarely interacted with the beefy man beyond casual greetings.
“He was always in the gym,” said Lina Diaz, who lives on the same floor as Oddi. “He seemed like a normal guy, nothing aggressive or weird.”