What to know about acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe

Driving the news: Trump was "safe" after there were "gunshots in his vicinity," his campaign said Sunday. The FBI is investigating "what appears to be an attempted assassination."

• A "potential suspect" is in custody, law enforcement officials said in a news conference.
• Rafael Barros, the special agent in charge for the Secret Service, Miami field office, said during the news conference that "Secret Service personnel opened fire on a gunman located near the property line." Barros added that the "the threat level is high."

Zoom in: Rowe was appointed in April of last year as deputy director, a role that granted him direct oversight of "daily investigative and protective operations," according to his Secret Service biography.

• He has experience leading the agency's engagements with Congress, DHS and other partners through his prior tenure as the assistant director for the Office of Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs.
• He was assigned to the Presidential Protective Detail from 2004 to 2008 and was deployed to New York City as part of the USSS response to 9/11.
• "During his 24-year career with the U.S. Secret Service, Mr. Rowe has also coordinated major security operations, collaborating with other government and law-enforcement agencies," his biography reads.

Flashback: His career with the agency began in 1999, and he previously served as a police officer in West Palm Beach, Florida.

• He was selected to the staff of the Senate's Committee on the Judiciary in 2008 and aided the National Security Council as a policy adviser in 2011.
• "Ron and I worked side by side for years," Cheatle said of Rowe in a 2023 statement about his appointment as deputy director.
• "His extensive resume with the agency gives him a breadth of knowledge," she continued. "I have come to trust and rely upon his decision-making abilities and good counsel."

Rowe relayed to lawmakers in a briefing last week a timeline of key events leading up to the moment shots were fired at the Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump rally.

• He defended the director as calls for her departure piled on, saying in an interview published by The Wall Street Journal, "When you're in the midst of a crisis, it takes toughness. It takes intelligence. And it takes also a little bit of strategy."
• He continued: "And she is demonstrating all of those traits at this time."

Catch up quick: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tapped Rowe to serve as the acting director of the agency in July, applauding the 24-year USSS veteran for "his willingness to lead the Secret Service at this incredibly challenging moment."

• Cheatle's anticipated resignation came a day after she faced a bipartisan grilling on Capitol Hill over the perceived lapses in security that allowed the gunman to fire within such close proximity of the former president and rally-goers, killing one attendee.
• Republicans and Democrats alike called for her resignation.
• "I have the utmost confidence in Deputy Director Rowe and the men and women of the Secret Service, who put their lives on the line every day and deserve our full support," Mayorkas said in a statement at the time of his appointment.

Go deeper: Secret Service director: We failed at "no-fail" mission

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional developments related to the apparent assassination attempt on former President Trump in September.