Pro-Ukraine activist Ryan Routh allegedly planned to shoot Republican presidential candidate
The Martin County, Florida, sheriff's office has released body camera footage of the arrest of Ryan Wesley Routh, who allegedly planned to shoot Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Routh, 58, was arrested Sunday afternoon. He had been waiting in the bushes at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, waiting for the former president to pass by, when Secret Service agents spotted him and opened fire.
Routh fled the scene, but officers caught up with him on a nearby road and arrested him without incident.
Only 18 seconds of the video have been made public, but it shows officers ordering Routh to walk backwards in their direction. The suspect has his hands in the air and a T-shirt over his head.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has previously shared photos of Routh's apparent hideout, showing a “AK-47 style” a scoped assault rifle, a GoPro camera and two backpacks filled with ceramic tiles, hanging from a nearby fence.
At a press conference on Monday, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe revealed that the gun was actually an antique “SKS style” rifle, with its serial number removed.
Routh has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and carrying a firearm with an obstructed serial number, both federal crimes.
According to a criminal record that has emerged since his arrest, Routh was convicted in 2002 of possession of a weapon of mass destruction, apparently a fully automatic machine gun, following an arrest that involved a three-hour standoff with police in North Carolina.
She moved to Hawaii and became politically involved in current affairs. In 2022, she took up Ukraine's cause in the conflict with Russia, advocating for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin and raising funds for the Ukrainian military.
In a self-published book in 2023, titled 'Ukraine's Unwinnable War: Democracy's Fatal Flaw, World Abandonment, and the Global Citizen: Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, and the End of Humanity,' Routh also expressed hope that someone would assassinate Trump, whom he called “Brainless and a “retarded child.”
Trump has narrowly escaped death once before, at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In a statement Monday, he thanked the Secret Service for doing its job and blamed rhetoric from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for radicalizing Routh.
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