WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – A suspect is believed to be behind the shooting Assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump According to court documents filed Monday, the attackers camped outside a golf course with food and rifles for about 12 hours and waited for the former president before a Secret Service agent foiled the potential attack and opened fire.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, already faces charges of possessing a firearm despite the commission of a felony and possessing a firearm with the serial number obliterated. He did not fire any shots. Additional and more serious charges are possible as the investigation continues and prosecutors seek an indictment from a grand jury.
Routh appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach, kicking off a criminal case in the final weeks of a presidential race already marred by violence and turmoil. Though no one was injured, the incident marked a second attempt on Trump's life, New questions are being raised on the security given to him The incident occurred amid a period of political rhetoric. It prompted Republican allies and even some Democrats to wonder how a potential shooter could get so close.
Routh was arrested Sunday afternoon after authorities spotted a gun sticking out of bushes at a West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing. A Secret Service agent guarding Trump spotted it, who opened fire. Routh fled before law enforcement captured him in a neighboring county, authorities said.
Body camera footage Video posted on Facebook by the Martin County Sheriff's Office on Monday shows Routh's arrest. The video shows him walking backwards along the street with his hands over his head before he is handcuffed and taken away by law enforcement officers.
Citing cellphone data that underscored the level of planning that went into the incident, the FBI affidavit said Routh was believed to be in the golf course's tree line between 1:59 a.m. and 1:31 p.m. Sunday. A digital camera, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag filled with food were recovered from the spot where Routh was standing, according to the affidavit.
Coming just weeks after a shooting at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July in which Trump was wounded by a gunman, the latest assassination attempt has fuelled concerns that violence is infecting US presidential politics. Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's rival in the November election, condemned the failed attack, with Harris saying in a post on X: “I'm glad he's safe. There's no place for violence in America.”
“We will work tirelessly to ensure accountability, and will use every available resource in this investigation,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Authorities did not immediately provide any new details about Routh's background or allege a specific motive for filing the charges. But his large online footprint suggests he is a man with shifting political views that culminate in an outspoken disdain for Trump and intense outrage over global events involving China and, especially, Ukraine.
“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote about Iran in his self-published book “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” due out in 2023, calling the former president a “fool” and a “clown” for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and his “tremendous blunder” of pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal.
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Routh wrote that he once voted for Trump and that he should take the blame for the “kid we elected as our next president, who turned out to be brainless.”
He also tried to recruit fighters for this. Ukraine will defend itself against RussiaAnd they had a website trying to raise money and recruit volunteers to fight for Kiev.
Voter records show he registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, and most recently voted in person during the state’s Democratic primary in March.
According to federal campaign finance records, Routh also made 19 smaller donations totaling $140 since 2019 to a political action committee called ActBlue, which supports Democratic candidates.
One of the two charges against him alleges he illegally kept his gun despite multiple felony convictions, including two counts of possession of stolen goods in North Carolina in 2002. The other charge alleges the serial number was erased and could not be read with the naked eye, a violation of federal law.
Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami field office, said Routh had previously been reported to the FBI in 2019, alleging he possessed a gun and was a convicted felon.
Veltri said the FBI interviewed the informant, who did not confirm the initial information. The FBI passed on the information to local law enforcement agencies in Honolulu.
Officers are executing search warrants for the suspect's cellphone, electronics and vehicle, Veltri said. They are also interviewing witnesses at the scene, as well as family members and former co-workers.
Routh was ordered detained after prosecutors argued he was a flight risk, and an additional hearing is scheduled for later this month.
Responding to formal questions from a federal magistrate, he said in a soft voice that he is working and earning about $3,000 a month but has no savings. Routh said he owns no real estate or property except two trucks worth about $1,000, both located in Hawaii. He also said he has a 25-year-old son whom he occasionally supports.
The arrests refocus attention on challenges to Trump's securityThe Republican presidential candidate meets with them not only during campaign events but also when he is out and about, often at his clubs and properties.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, one of Trump's rivals in the Republican primary, said his state would conduct its own investigation into how Routh got so close.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said in a briefing that since Trump is no longer in office, security protocols around the course have been loosened.
“He is not the sitting President. If he were, we would have cordoned off the entire golf course. But since he is not the sitting President, his security is limited to only those areas that the Secret Service considers feasible,” he told reporters.
On July 13, The bullet grazed Trump's ear During a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a 20-year-old gunman managed to gain access to an unsecured roof.
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Tucker, Durkin Richer and Long reported from Washington.