A man involved in an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump over the weekend appeared in federal court in Florida on Monday and is facing federal gun charges.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, appeared in prison scrubs and shackles at a federal courthouse in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, according to the Associated Press. Routh is charged with possessing a firearm despite being a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with a destroyed serial number.
Authorities say Routh waited in the bushes, armed with an AK-47-style rifle, to shoot Trump on Sunday while the former president was playing golf a few hundred yards away at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump was unharmed during the incident. Secret Service observed Routh and fired shots at him, leading Routh to take off, and law enforcement officials later located and detained him, authorities said.
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An abundance of details about Routh and his possible motive emerged soon after the incident.
The suspect appeared to be a political ideologue with a large social media presence who became disenchanted with Trump after 2016. Routh appeared to shift his favor toward various Democrats in recent years and developed a fixation on supporting Ukraine in 2022.
The FBI, which is leading the inquiry into Routh, announced after the incident on Sunday that it was investigating “what appears to be an attempted assassination” of Trump.
This story is developing and will be updated.
