The suspect in an apparent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach 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.
A criminal complaint alleges the suspect’s cell phone was in the vicinity of the golf course for 12 hours, starting at around 2 a.m. The complaint also says investigators found food near the location where a rifle, a digital camera, and bags with ceramic inside were located.
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 potential 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 pm. on Sunday by a Secret Service agent from Trump’s security detail. The unnamed agent was walking the golf course perimeter and “saw what appeared to be a rife poking out of the tree line,” the affidavit released Monday said.
“The agent fired his/her service weapon in the direction of the rife. 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 affidavit said.
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 said.
The rifle’s serial number “was obliterated and unreadable to the naked eye.”
The suspect has a 2002 conviction from Greensboro, North Carolina, for “possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction,” the affidavit said.
He was also convicted in 2010 in North Carolina of multiple counts of possession of stolen goods, the affidavit said 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 said.
“Agents requested T-Mobile, on an emergency basis, to provide law enforcement with information pertaining to Routh’s mobile phone usage,” the affidavit said.
“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.”
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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