The alleged gunman accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course had 11 rounds loaded in his assault rifle, federal prosecutors said Monday — as they revealed the first close-up photo of the weapon.
The image of the Soviet-designed SKS rifle that was found stashed in Ryan Wesley Routh’s alleged sniper’s nest at the West Palm Beach golf course on Sept. 15 was included in a detention memo filed Monday.
The rifle has been modified with a detachable magazine, a modern stock and a scope to make it more accurate to shoot at long range.
The serial number on the rifle was “obliterated and unreadable,” prosecutors alleged.
Routh’s fingerprint was also allegedly found on the weapon, the court papers state.
The feds found the firearm — as well as backpacks and a GoPro camera — soon after the 48-year-old suspect fled the hiding spot where he’d allegedly been waiting to take a shot at the former president.
A Secret Service agent foiled the would-be assassination attempt after spotting the muzzle of the rifle sticking through the shrubbery lining the golf course and opening fire, authorities said.
Routh abandoned his weapon and took off in an SUV, but was apprehended some 40 minutes later on Interstate 95 in Martin County, Fla., according to prosecutors.
Authorities who searched his car subsequently found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico, the court papers charge.
They also found a list with dates in August, September and October – as well as venues where Trump had appeared or was scheduled to appear, prosecutors said.
A notebook found in his car was allegedly filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.
