STUART, Fla. person arrested in connection with an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump He complied with the sheriff’s instructions and was taken into custody without incident, video of the arrest shows indicated that he was released on Monday.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office released the footage less than 24 hours after the shooting near Trump’s golf course in Florida, where the former president played.
Body camera footage shows several armed police officers from sheriff’s deputies confronting 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh.
“Driver, take two steps to the right! Take two steps to the right! Driver, go right back, keep walking,” the unidentified deputy could be heard yelling at the suspect.
At that time, a man in a shirt, with his midriff exposed and his head pulled up, came in front of the camera with his hands up.
In the video, two law enforcement officers then grabbed his hands and handcuffed the man.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told NBC News that the deputy’s yelling instructions are what led the agent to spot Routh’s car and trigger the pullover.
According to Snyder, once Routh was taken into custody, the arresting deputy stayed with the suspect with his body camera activated in case he made any incriminating statements.
Routh is 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 Sunday while driving on Interstate 95. A witness who saw Routh and his car was crucial to helping law enforcement quickly find the suspect, officials said.
“If the witness didn’t see him, if he took a picture of the car, if he didn’t give us the tag … I would say he would be at home relaxing and drinking a margarita right now,” Snyder told NBC News.
The sheriff added that law enforcement took advantage of Rout without knowing the deputies were on him.
“He was just driving with the flow of traffic. Yeah, I think he thought he got away with it,” Snyder told reporters earlier. on monday. “Of course, he couldn’t have known that there was a witness who actually 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 a gunman could be within a few hundred feet of the former president.
“I think the question that the FBI (and) Secret Service are laser-focused on today is. Is this guy part of a conspiracy? Is he a lone gunman?” Snyder said. “If he’s a lone gunman, President Trump is safer because we have him. But if he’s part of a conspiracy, it takes on a very sinister tone indeed.”
Juliet Arcodia contributed.