The suspect in an apparent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach, Florida, golf club may have staked out the former president overnight before being spotted by the Secret Service the next day and fleeing, according to new court documents.
Details on Ryan Wesley Routh’s whereabouts in the half day before he was apprehended on Sunday were released by federal prosecutors as the 58-year-old man made his first court appearance.
Later Monday, law enforcement officials said that while the suspect had gotten close to Trump, he did not have a line of sight to the former president.
“The alleged gunman was on the public side of the fence near the 6th green,” Acting Secret Service Ronald Rowe Jr. told reporters.
Rowe said that as Trump approached the fairway on hole 5, “across the course and out of sight of the 6th green, the agent sweeping the area saw the subject armed with what he perceived to be a rifle and immediately discharged his firearm.” The agent’s shots, Rowe added, caused the suspect, later identified by authorities as Routh, to flee the area.
“He did not fire or get off any shots at our agent,” Rowe said. “With reports of gunfire, the former president’s close protection detail immediately evacuated the former president to a safe location.”
While the Secret Service is facing questions over how another potential assassin got close to Trump, Rowe said Sunday’s events show his agents are up to the task after the July assassination attempt.
“The agents’ hypervigilance and the detail’s swift action was textbook,” Rowe said. “And I commend them and our partners for an exemplary response and for keeping former President Trump safe.”
Law enforcement officials also highlighted aspects of the criminal complaint that allege the suspect’s cellphone was in the vicinity of the golf course for 12 hours, starting at about 2 a.m. The complaint also says investigators found food near where a rifle, a digital camera, and bags containing ceramic were.
The suspect has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. The charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
An FBI affidavit filed with the suspect’s criminal complaint gives the most complete narrative yet of the incident, which appears to be the second attempt in two months on the former president’s life.
The suspect was spotted at 1:31 p.m. on Sunday by a Secret Service agent from Trump’s security detail, the affidavit released Monday says. The unnamed agent was walking the golf course’s perimeter and “saw what appeared to be a rifle poking out of the tree line,” it adds.
“The agent fired his/her service weapon in the direction of the rifle,” the affidavit adds. “A witness saw a male, later identified as Routh, fleeing the area of the tree line and entering a Nissan sport utility vehicle. The witness then observed the Nissan leave the area at a high rate of speed.”
The suspect left behind “a digital camera, two (2) bags, including a backpack, a loaded SKS-style, 7.62×39 caliber rifle with a scope, and a black plastic bag containing food,” the affidavit says.
The rifle’s serial number “was obliterated and unreadable to the naked eye,” it adds.
The suspect has a 2002 conviction from Greensboro, North Carolina, for “possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction,” the affidavit says.
He was also convicted in 2010 in North Carolina of multiple counts of possession of stolen goods, the affidavit says, and is therefore not allowed to possess a firearm.
His cellphone number and records were quickly retrieved thanks to his own Facebook posts.
The suspect had posted his phone number in a message sent from the tree line at 1:59 a.m. Sunday, directing his followers to reach out to him on WhatsApp, the affidavit says.
“Agents requested T-Mobile, on an emergency basis, to provide law enforcement with information pertaining to Routh’s mobile phone usage,” the affidavit says.
“Those records indicated that Routh’s mobile phone was located in the vicinity of the area along the tree line described above from approximately 1:59 a.m. until approximately 1:31 p.m. on September 15, 2024,” it adds.
The suspect is due to be back at federal court in West Palm Beach in two weeks to be arraigned on the charges.
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