The man arrested in connection to an apparent attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump appeared to follow law enforcement directions and was taken into custody without incident, footage of the confrontation released on Monday showed.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office made the footage available less than 24 hours after gunfire erupted near Trump’s Florida golf course, where the former president had been playing.
Body camera footage showed several armed police of sheriff’s deputies confronting Ryan Wesley Routh, 58.
“Driver, take two steps to your right! Take two steps to your right! Driver go straight back, keep walking,” a law enforcement agent wearing what appeared to be a protective “SHERRIF” vest said.
That’s when a man with a t-shirt pulled over his head, exposing his midsection, came into the camera’s range with his hands up.
Two law enforcement agents then grabbed his hands and handcuffed the man, the video showed.
Routh has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, officials said.
He was taken into custody on Sunday while driving on Interstate 95. A witness who spotted Routh and his car was crucial to helping law enforcement find the suspect quickly, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said.
“He was just driving with the flow of traffic. Yeah, I think that he may have thought he got away with it,” Snyder told reporters on Monday. “Of course, he couldn’t have known that there was a witness who really did the right thing, took a picture of him, took a picture of the tag. And he was just going to drive himself back to wherever he came from.”
The sheriff said he wants to know how an armed man could have even been within several hundred feet of a former president.
“I think that’s the question the FBI (and) Secret Service are laser focused on today. Is this guy part of a conspiracy? Is he a lone gunman?” Snyder said. “If he’s a lone gunman, President Trump is that much safer because we have him. But if he’s part of a conspiracy, then this whole thing really takes on a very ominous tone.”
This is a developing story. Please check back here for updates.
Juliette Arcodia contributed.
