Trump would-be ‘assassin’ waited in the bush for 12 hours
WASHINGTON—Phone records indicated that the man suspected of trying to kill Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday had been waiting in the bush for nearly 12 hours before he was spotted with a rifle as the former US president played golf nearby.
The suspect identified as Ryan Routh, 58, of Hawaii, was charged with two gun-related crimes on Monday, a day after authorities say he was spotted in the bushes at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course.
Trump, seeking to return to the White House in the Nov. 5 election, was unharmed.
But the incident raised fresh questions about how an armed suspect was able to get so close to him, just two months after another gunman fired at Trump during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing his ear with a bullet.
Trump’s visit to his golf course in West Palm Beach was not on his public schedule, acting US Secret Service director Ronald Rowe told reporters on Monday afternoon, and it was not clear whether the suspect knew Trump would be there.
The Secret Service opened fire after an agent sweeping the course saw a rifle barrel poking out of the bushes a few hundred yards away from the former president, who was on the fairway of the fifth hole.
Located at golf course
The gunman fled in a sports utility vehicle, according to the complaint. Officers found a loaded assault-style rifle with a scope, a digital camera and a plastic bag of food left behind.
Routh was arrested 40 minutes later on Interstate 95.
Records show a phone associated with Routh was located at the golf course starting at 1:59 a.m. on Sunday morning, 11-1/2 hours before the incident.
The suspect was on the “public side” of a fence along the golf course’s boundary, Rowe said on Monday afternoon. He did not have a line of sight to Trump and did not fire any shots, Rowe said.
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.
He has at least two prior felony convictions, according to the criminal complaint.
Gun charges
In 2002, Routh pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered fully automatic gun, defined in North Carolina law as a weapon of mass destruction, according to the county attorney’s office, and was sentenced to probation. He was also convicted of possessing stolen goods in 2010.
Trump blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, for the apparent assassination attempt.
He claimed the suspected gunman was acting on Democrats’ “highly inflammatory language.”
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at,” he said, according to Fox.
Harris and other Democrats have cast Trump as a danger to US democracy, citing his effort to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election, which led to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol. Harris has promised unwavering support for Ukraine if elected.
