Ryan Wesley Routh takes part in a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. COPYRIGHT 2024 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Suspect in apparent trump shooting attempt is charged on firearms counts
The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, made an initial court appearance in Florida. He was charged with possessing a firearm as a felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Routh, who was arrested yesterday after an alleged abortive bid to shoot the former president at his West Palm Beach golf course, is expected to face further charges at a later arraignment.
Routh appears calm during the brief court hearing, answering “yes” in a soft voice to several questions from District Judge Ryon McCabe of the Southern District of Florida.
Routh was arrested after a US Secret Service agent noticed the barrel of a rifle pointing out of shrubbery at the Trump International Golf Course.
Agents, who were deployed in a moving security bubble extending about one or two holes ahead of the former president, “engaged” an individual, the US Secret Service’s Rafael Barros said.
Trump was unharmed.
In the complaint, FBI special agent Mark A Thomas also said that Routh had been convicted in 2002 in North Carolina of possessing “a weapon of mass death and destruction”, a felony.
Such weapons include fully automatic rifles, sawed-off shotguns, bombs, grenades and mines, according to the state’s laws.
New York Times,Forbes, The Guardian
