17/04/2023

A 30-year-old opera singer from Connecticut allegedly drove her car into Mar-a-Lago, escaped from police and picked her mother up at the airport.

Hannah Roemhild, a 30-year-old opera singer from Connecticut, led police on a highspeed chase near President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, evaded security checkpoints, dodged gunshots by police, picked her mother up at the airport in her black SUV that had been “shredded by bullets,” and checked into a motel before she was arrested, according to a report by the Miami Herald. 
As Insider previously reported, Roemhild led the Florida Highway Patrol on a highspeed chase around 11:30 a.m. on Friday, January 31. She was seen dancing on the hood of her car at the Breakers resort and hotel, police told the Miami Herald, and when she was confronted by an off-duty police officer, she fled, the Miami Herald reported. 
The incident happened in Palm Beach, Florida, the city where the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort – previously called the “winter White House” by the 45th president – is located. According to the report, Roemhild drove three miles from Breakers to Mar-a-Lago, barrelled through two security checkpoints and headed toward the main entrance at the Trump resort. Authorities, which included local police and Secret Service agents, opened fire on her vehicle, but that wasn’t enough to stop her.
Roemhild then drove her vehicle, which was now covered in bullet holes, to Palm Beach International Airport to pick up her mother. After retrieving her mother up from the airport, the two drove and checked in to a local motel, where Roemhild was later arrested. 
Roemhild, charged with two state counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, was supposed to appear in court on Saturday, though she refused and is now scheduled to appear before the Palm Beach Circuit Court on Monday, the report said. 
She is also likely to face federal charges of assaulting a secret service officer when she drove her vehicle through the security checkpoints at the president’s golf resort, the Herald said. 
Authorities don’t believe Roemhild’s actions were politically motivated and speculated that she lives with a mental health condition. The 30-year-old could be involuntarily institutionalized to undergo a psychological evaluation in accordance with Florida law, per the Herald.
“This is not a terrorist thing,” Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a Friday afternoon news conference. “This is somebody that obviously was impaired somehow.”
The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, and the U.S. Secret Service are investigating the incident, the Florida newspaper said.
The FBI did not return an Insider request for comment on its investigation. 
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