On Monday afternoon, authorities released bodycam video of deputies' arrest of a suspect in the attempted assassination of former President Trump, reports Fox News. Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was apprehended Sunday on Interstate 95 after deputies closed in on his vehicle, Martin County, Fla., Sheriff Will Snyder confirmed during a press briefing.
Advertisement
The footage shows deputies instructing Routh to walk backward with his hands on his head as he surrendered. Routh is accused of hiding in the bushes at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., armed with an SKS-style rifle, waiting to ambush the former president.
Routh aimed the rifle through the fence at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., while Trump was golfing. The Secret Service thwarted the plot after spotting the rifle’s barrel emerging from the shrubbery, prompting them to open fire. Routh fled but was swiftly apprehended by local authorities. As the above video shows, Routh did not resist arrest.
Law enforcement utilized license plate readers to track the suspect’s vehicle to Interstate 95, where Martin County Sheriff's deputies intercepted and apprehended him.
Fox News Digital has more.
Routh fled the golf course after authorities say Secret Service agents fired at him when spotting the muzzle of his rifle through a chain-link fence one hole ahead, about 300 yards, of where Trump was playing a round.
Routh was arrested a short time later after a witness shared a photo of the suspect’s vehicle with authorities.
Snyder told reporters that Routh was caught near Palm City exit 714 on I-95, and it took authorities about two miles to get all the resources in play to surround the vehicle and force it to a stop.
"He was smart, he was just driving with the flow of traffic," the sheriff said. "I think that he may have thought that he got away with it."
Advertisement
Oran Routh, the son of Ryan Routh, told the Daily Mail he does not believe his father is violent and was unaware his father even owned a gun.
He told the outlet that his father dislikes Trump, as "every reasonable person does." He emphasized, "I don't like Trump either," while insisting that his father is not a violent person and would never target the former president.
"He's my dad and all he's had is couple traffic tickets, as far as I know," Oran Routh said. "That's crazy. I know my dad and love my dad, but that's nothing like him."
"The Secret Service agent that was on the course did a fantastic job," Sheriff Rich Bradshaw of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said at a press conference on Sunday. "What they do is they have an agent that jumps one hole ahead of time to where the president was at, and he was able to spot this rifle barrel sticking out of the fence and immediately engage that individual, at which time the individual took off.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member