The U.S. Secret Service and Ryan Wesley Routh: A 20-Year-Aftermath Attempt on a Former President Donald Trump
The president said that Ronald L. Rowe Jr., the acting head of the Secret Service, “is in Florida today, assessing what happened and determining whether any further adjustments need to be made to ensure the safety of our former president.”
President Biden decried political violence and the attempt to assassinate our former president, saying the ballot box is how America resolves differences.
“I am thankful that former President Trump is safe,” Harris said. I applaud the U.S. Secret Service for their vigilance.
Trump’s opponent in the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, condemned political violence, saying on Sunday that she was “deeply disturbed by the possible assassination attempt of former President Trump today.”
Between September and March 2020, Routh donated to ActBlue in amounts ranging from $1 to $25 a pop.
Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspected gunman involved in an apparent assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida on Sunday, was charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction over 20 years ago.
Routh resided in Hawaii for a short time after moving from North Carolina. He owns a business that builds portable storage units. His digital footprint depicts Routh as a disillusioned former Trump supporter who backs Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The white Ford pickup that had its tag reported stolen was the one that had the license plate on Routh’s Nissan.
Bradshaw said law enforcement got a big break when a witness came to them and said that he saw the guy running out the bushes. I took a picture of the vehicle and the tag after he jumped into it.
The shooting of an AK-47-style rifle by a white man on an improvised sniper’s nest in the South Central Golf Course
Photos from the scene depict what looks to be an improvised sniper’s nest, with backpacks hung next to each other on the fence with a space in between them. The suspect is thought to have intended ceramic tiles to be armor against gunfire.
At the time of Sunday’s encounter, Trump was one or two holes away — “probably between [300] and 500 yards” from the suspect’s location, Bradshaw said. “But with a rifle and a scope like that, that’s not a long distance,” he added.
The center adds that an SKS-style gun was used in two high-profile attacks in the past decade: one at a baseball field where members of Congress played in 2017; and another at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado in 2015. The June 2017 attack on a Congressional baseball game practice in Alexandria, Va., left five wounded, including then-House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and two Capitol Police officers.
The rifle Routh was accused of using was a SKS-style rifle, which is similar to the AK-47. Both guns use the same round that was used in the Vietnam War, according to the Violence Policy Center.
“In the bushes where this guy was, is an AK-47-style rifle with a scope, two backpacks which were hung on the fence that had ceramic tile in them and a GoPro” camera, Bradshaw said, noting that the suspect was seemingly intent on filming what took place.
The Secret Service did a great job of protecting Trump but Bradshaw also said that they provided exactly what the protection should have been.
The special agent in charge of the Miami office of the U.S. Secret Service said at a news conference that the agency’s personnel opened fire on a man near the property line. The agents fired from a long distance and hit the suspect, he said. As of Sunday afternoon, it wasn’t clear whether the suspect had also fired his weapon, Barros said.
The golf course has a few holes that turn a corner near the intersection of Congress Avenue and Summit Blvd.
The Aronberg Investigation of the 2003 Florida Golf Course Shootout by a Fourth-Rosen Criminal Angular Officer with a Black Hole
Dave Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach County, said on Sunday that prosecutors filed warrants after Routh was arrested to keep him in jail until possible federal charges can be brought.
The criminal complaint said that Routh had been in the vicinity of the golf course for nearly 12 hours, after his cellphone provider suggested that he was there.
Routh, who was represented by a federal public defender, told federal judge Ryon McCabe that he has no savings to pay for his defense. Wearing a blue prison jumpsuit and shackles, he also said he has a 25-year-old son.
Trump was playing golf at the time. Law enforcement apprehended Routh after a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle sticking out of a perimeter fence on the course and engaged with the threat, firing at least four rounds in that direction. It is not clear whether the man fired a shot. The AK-47 style rifle, with a scope and a GoPro, was found by law enforcement in the bushes.
“One night I recognized him in his vehicle,” she says. “I knew he didn’t have a driver’s license, so I stopped him right in front of his roofing shop, which was what used to be on Lee Street in Greensboro. He stopped, and as I approached his truck he pulled a sack away from the center of the seat, and I saw a gun. I drew my gun and told him to show me his hands. He ran into his house after pulling into his driveway. A callout by the Special Response Team led to a standoff and the arrest of the man.
Local reporting from Greensboro News and Record in 2002 states that Routh was pulled over by police during a traffic stop. After driving to the business United Roofing, Routh barricaded himself in for three hours, according to the police.
“I figured he was either dead or in prison by now,” Tracy Fulk, the charging officer in the case, tells WIRED. I didn’t know that he had moved on and continued his escapades.