Alleged Trump Shooter Sat in Sniper’s Nest for Nearly 12 Hours

(AP)

Ryan Wesley Routh, the alleged gunman in Sunday’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump, sat in a sniper’s nest he set up near the former president’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, for nearly 12 hours before the Secret Service detected him, federal prosecutors said on Monday.

According to the federal criminal complaint, which was obtained by the New York Post, Routh’s cell phone began pinging to the area on the edge of the Trump International Golf Club at 1:59 a.m. Sunday.

Secret Service agents spotted the barrel of his gun at approximately 1:30 p.m., while Trump was playing a round of golf 300 to 500 yards away.

A GoPro camera, two bags, and a loaded SKS-style rifle were recovered from the sniper’s nest, according to the complaint, with the gun’s serial number unreadable due to being scratched off.

The complaint notes that SKS-style rifles are not made in Florida, so the weapon had to have been brought in from another state or country.

After the Secret Service fired at Routh, a witness reportedly saw him fleeing the scene in a Nissan sport vehicle and snapped a picture of the license plate. He was arrested a short time later on I-95.

Records from the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction showed that in 2001 and 2002, someone with Routh’s exact full name and birth date was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, hit and run, and “possessing a weapon of mass destruction,” among other criminal charges.

Before moving to Hawaii around 2018, Routh lived in Greensboro, North Carolina. An anonymous woman who identified herself as his longtime neighbor told Fox 8 that she knew “he was a little cuckoo” but was still shocked by the allegations against him.

“I just can’t believe it,” she said. “I mean, if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I mean the pictures and stuff and all, then I wouldn’t be able to believe that.”