Trump assassination attempt suspect allegedly lurked in ambush for 12 hours

A man suspected of hiding for nearly 12 hours in an apparent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course was charged with two gun-related crimes Monday, a day after authorities said he was spotted in the bushes with a rifle as the former US president played nearby.

The suspect never had the Republican presidential nominee in his line of sight and did not fire a shot. But the incident has raised questions about how a gunman could have gotten so close to Trump, just two months after another gunman grazed his ear with a bullet at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump’s visit to his golf course in West Palm Beach was not on his public schedule, acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told reporters Monday afternoon, and it was unclear whether the suspect knew Trump would be there.

The Secret Service opened fire after an agent sweeping the course saw the barrel of a rifle protruding from the bushes a few hundred yards from the former president, who was standing on the fairway of the fifth hole.

“All of a sudden, we heard gunshots in the air. I think there were probably four or five,” Trump said at an event at X Spaces. “The Secret Service knew right away that it was bullets and they grabbed me. … We got in the carts and we moved along pretty well. I was with an agent and he did a fantastic job.”

While praising the Secret Service agents, he added: “We need more people on my team.”

The gunman fled the scene in a sport utility vehicle, according to court documents released Monday. Officers found a loaded assault rifle with a scope, a digital camera and a plastic bag containing food.

A suspect, identified Monday as Ryan Routh, 58, was arrested about 40 minutes later while driving north on Interstate 95. His vehicle’s license plate had been reported stolen from another car.

Records show that a phone associated with Routh was located on the golf course starting at 1:59 a.m. (0559 GMT) Sunday morning, 11 1/2 hours before the incident.

The suspect was on the “public side” of a fence that runs along the golf course boundary, Rowe said.

Routh was the subject of a tip to the FBI in 2019 accusing him of being a convicted felon who illegally possessed a firearm, Jeffrey Veltri, the agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office, told reporters.

The complainant was unable to verify the information when the FBI investigated it, Veltri said.

CHARGES FOR CARRYING FIREARMS

Routh made a brief appearance in federal court in West Palm Beach on Monday, where he was charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. More charges could follow.

The defendant invoked his right to counsel when investigators sought to question him, Rowe said.

In 2002, Routh pleaded guilty in North Carolina to possession of an unregistered automatic weapon, defined by state law as a weapon of mass destruction, according to the county attorney’s office, and was sentenced to probation. He was also convicted of possession of stolen property in 2010.

Trump’s campaign schedule will remain unchanged, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Trump has blamed the assassination attempt on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate. He said the suspected shooter acted on the Democrats’ “highly provocative remarks,” though authorities have yet to provide evidence of a motive.

“Their rhetoric is getting me shot, when I’m the one who’s going to save the country, and they’re the ones who are destroying the country, from the inside and the outside,” he said, according to Fox.

Democrats, including Biden, have repeatedly called Trump a danger to democracy, citing among other things his refusal to acknowledge his 2020 election defeat, which inspired the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. Trump himself repeatedly uses inflammatory rhetoric and false statements about his political opponents and, recently, Haitian immigrants.

Both Biden and Harris denounced the incident, and Biden also spoke with Trump on Monday.

“President Biden just spoke with former President Trump and expressed his relief that he is safe. The two men had a cordial conversation and former President Trump expressed his thanks for the call,” the White House said in a statement.

In a statement, Trump called the decision “very good.”

SECRET SERVICES UNDER PRESSURE

The Secret Service, which protects US presidents, presidential candidates and other high-level dignitaries, has come under intense scrutiny since the previous assassination attempt on Trump.

That led to the resignation of Director Kimberly Cheatle. The department stepped up security measures for Trump after the July 13 attack, in which the shooter was shot and killed by officers on the scene.

The agency “needs more help,” including perhaps more staff, Biden told reporters Monday, adding: “Thank God the president is doing well.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who convened a bipartisan task force to investigate the first assassination attempt, told Fox News that Congress would also look into the latest incident, saying: “We need accountability.”

Rowe, who took office after Cheatle resigned in July, told Congress on July 30 that he was “ashamed” of the security failures in the previous attack.

Routh is a staunch supporter of Ukraine and traveled there after Russia’s 2022 invasion, seeking to recruit foreign fighters. Ukrainian officials distanced themselves from Routh on Monday, and the International Legion, where many foreign fighters in Ukraine serve, said it had no ties to Routh.

Harris has pledged unwavering support for Ukraine if elected.

Trump has expressed skepticism about the scale of U.S. aid to Ukraine and has pledged to immediately end the war if elected. He told Reuters last year that Ukraine might have to give up some territory to secure peace.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Andrew Goudsward, Alexandra Ulmer, Jonathan Allen, Mike Stone, Richard Cowan, Jeff Mason, Helen Coster, Jonathan Drake, Anastasiia Malenko, Kanishka Singh and Susan Heavey; Writing by Joseph Ax and Peter Graff; Editing by David Gregorio and Stephen Coates)