The Martin County Sheriff’s Office released its body camera footage of the moment when authorities took alleged would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh into custody on Sunday.
Routh appeared to have had his sights set on attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump while Trump was golfing at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday.
The suspect had taken aim in the bushes near the golf course with an “AK-47 style rifle with a scope,” a GoPro camera, and two backpacks with ceramic tile, according to law enforcement officials. He was discovered after a Secret Service agent who was stationed one hole ahead of the former president on the course noticed a gun barrel sticking out of the bushes. The agent engaged with Routh, causing the suspect to flee by car.
The police found Routh’s car, a black Nissan, traveling north on Interstate 95 from Palm Beach County into Martin County when law enforcement pulled him over. The body camera footage released on Monday shows the interaction after they pulled over Routh.
“Driver, take two steps to your right. Driver, take two steps to your right! Driver, go straight back,” the law enforcement officers told Routh.
Routh then kept walking backward, with his shirt covering the back of his head, until two law enforcement officers put him in handcuffs and detained him. After he was detained, Routh did not appear to resist arrest.
The suspect in the attempted assassination of Trump in Florida is facing two federal charges, but more charges are expected on the state level and even on the federal level as the investigations continue.
Routh is facing two federal gun charges, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, and he made an initial appearance at a courthouse in West Palm Beach on Monday.
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The assassination attempt on Trump is the second one this year. The former president was shot in the ear during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The attempt on Trump’s life two months ago left him injured, and the shots fired killed one rally attendee, Corey Comperatore. The gunman in the Butler assassination attempt was killed by law enforcement agents shortly after he opened fire.
