Federal prosecutors said on Monday that the suspected gunman in the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump hid in the bushes near Trump’s golf course in South Florida for nearly 12 hours on Sunday before he was spotted by Secret Service agents.
According to a criminal complaint, suspect Ryan Routh’s cell phone pinged at a spot near the edge of Trump International West Palm Beach beginning at 1:59 a.m. Sunday morning before Secret Service agents spotted his gun barrel sticking out from behind a fence at around 1:30 p.m., the New York Post reported. The Secret Service reportedly opened fire at Routh before the suspected gunman fled the scene. Routh was then pulled over and detained by authorities in Martin County, Florida.
Routh allegedly set up what appeared to be a sniper’s nest in the bushes that surround the Trump International golf course, where the former president was playing golf on Sunday afternoon. Routh was snuffed out by at least one agent who was scouting the area ahead of where Trump was golfing. After Routh was stopped by the Secret Service, agents found an AK-47-style rifle, a GoPro camera, and backpacks in the sniper’s nest.
It remains unclear how the suspected gunman knew that Trump would be golfing there on Sunday and how he got his hands on a gun. Routh was convicted in 2002 of possessing a fully automatic machine gun — the same year that he reportedly barricaded himself inside a Greensboro, North Carolina, business with a gun. The gun conviction would have barred Routh from owning a firearm.
Martin County, Florida, Sheriff Will Snyder said on Monday morning that federal authorities are “laser-focused” on finding out if Routh’s alleged attempt to assassinate Trump is “part of a conspiracy.”
“How does a guy from not here get all the way to Trump International, realize that the former president of the United States is golfing, and is able to get a rifle in that vicinity?” Snyder asked. “I think that’s the question the FBI, the Secret Service are laser-focused on today: is this guy part of a conspiracy? Is he a lone gunman?”
Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!
“If he’s a lone gunman, President Trump is much safer because we have him, but if he’s part of a conspiracy, then this whole thing really takes on a very ominous tone,” the sheriff added.
In the past, Routh had posted his disdain for Trump on social media, writing in one X post, “While you were my choice in [2016], I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment [sic] and it seems you are getting worse and devolving. I will be glad when you gone.”
Routh also repeated common Democratic talking points in one post where he wrote that “DEMOCRACY is on the ballot” in the 2024 election “and we cannot lose.”
