Your support helps us to tell the story
The Martin County Deputies who detained the suspect in the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump signed the handcuffs used in the arrest and gifted them to Trump.
The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was detained on Sunday after a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle through the fence at Trump’s golf course near West Palm Beach, Florida as the former president was playing a round on Sunday.
The agent opened fire and Routh fled but he was later detained after a woman took a photo of his license plate and alerted the authorities.
Trump met the deputies at Mar-a-Lago after the arrest.
“That’s good-looking stuff right there,” Trump said, according to WPTV. “That’s good-looking human beings.”
The former president then shook hands with Sheriff William Snyder and the deputies.
The officers involved in the arrest of Routh signed the handcuffs he wore and gave them to Trump and the deputies were invited for lunch at Mar-a-Lago.
The deputies apprehended Routh on Interstate 95 after he fled Trump International Golf Club. Investigators have said that he was armed with an SKS-style rifle after initially saying the firearm was in the style of an AK-47.
Snyder told WPTV that communication with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office was vital when they worked to find the suspect.
On Sunday, the day of the arrest, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said that the witness was able to take the image of the vehicle and license plate.
A license plate reader system found Routh’s black Nissan SUV close to the exit for Palm City on I-95.
“I could not be more proud of my crew,” Snyder told WPTV on Tuesday. “I talked to the president today, and he told me specifically that he can rest easier knowing that someone who was about to kill him, or try to kill him, was in custody. To me, that’s as rewarding as anything I’ve ever done.”
Deputies noted that Routh was “very compliant and calm” as he was detained despite the larges number of officers surrounding him.
Routh has so far been charged with two firearm violations – possession of a firearm by a convicted felon as well as possession and receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who ran against Donald Trump in the Republican presidential primary, said during a press conference on Tuesday that Routh is likely to face charges on the state level as well.
