The Martin County, Florida sheriff’s office has released body camera footage of the arrest of Ryan Wesley Routh, who allegedly planned to shoot US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Routh, 58, was arrested on Sunday afternoon. He had positioned himself in the bushes of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, waiting for the former president to come by, when Secret Service agents spotted him and opened fire.
Routh fled the scene but deputies caught up with him on a nearby highway and detained him without incident.
Only 18 seconds of the video have been made public, but they show the deputies instructing 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 an “AK-47-style” assault rifle with a scope, a GoPro camera, and two backpacks filled with ceramic tiles, hanging on a nearby fence.
At a press conference on Monday, US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe revealed that the weapon was actually an older “SKS-style” rifle, with its serial number erased.
Routh has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and bearing a weapon with an obstructed serial number, both federal crimes.
According to criminal records that have surfaced since his arrest, Routh was convicted in 2002 of possession of a weapon of mass destruction, reportedly a fully automatic machine gun, following an arrest involving a three-hour standoff with police in North Carolina.
He moved to Hawaii and became politically involved with trending issues of the day. In 2022, he embraced the cause of Ukraine in the conflict with Russia, advocating for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin and fundraising for the Ukrainian army.
In a self-published 2023 book, titled ‘Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen – Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea and the end of Humanity’, Routh also expressed hope someone would assassinate Trump, whom he called “brainless and a “retarded child.”
Trump narrowly escaped death once already, at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In a statement on Monday, he thanked the Secret Service for doing its job and blamed the rhetoric of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for radicalizing Routh.