by Dan McCaleb
Federal authorities in Florida on Monday filed two gun charges against the suspect in what the FBI is calling an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the second in two months.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was charged with possession of a firearm as a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Additional charges are expected.
Law enforcement officials allege Routh was armed with a semiautomatic rifle and scope just outside Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club while the former president was playing the course.
A Secret Service agent who was monitoring the course a hole ahead of Trump noticed a man with a rifle, pointing the barrel through a chain-link fence near shrubbery that surrounds the course, authorities said. The agent fired on the alleged gunman, who was approximately 300 to 500 yards away from the former president. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, was rushed back to the clubhouse in a golf cart and was unharmed.
Routh fled after being fired upon, but a witness took a photo of the car as it pulled away, and authorities said they tracked down the vehicle and arrested the suspect.
The New York Post reported that Routh previously has been convicted on several gun-related and other charges, including in 2002, when he was convicted of possessing a weapon of mass destruction.
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Dan McCaleb is the executive editor at The Center Square.
