As the investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump enters its second day, a number of questions remain unanswered.
Chiefly, how could suspect Ryan Wesley Routh have known where the Republican candidate would be? And why would he have decided on such a drastic course of action?
Here The Telegraph rounds up the key questions that remain for law enforcement.
Trump on course last year
Trump did not have any events listed on his public schedule, while his most recent campaign stops had taken place in Nevada.
How the Republican candidate’s would-be assassin worked out where he would be is the “million-dollar question”, according to Will Snyder, the Florida sheriff whose officers arrested Routh on Sunday.
“It’s hard for me to imagine how he got within rifle range of president Trump,” he told Fox News.
At a press conference on Monday afternoon, the Interim Director of the Secret Service said they were examining whether the suspect knew Trump would be on the course.
What was the gunman’s motivation?
Routh had voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, yet eight years later he is suspected of making an attempt on the former president’s life.
He became disillusioned with the Republican, referring to him in a 2023 self-published book as “buffoon”, a “fool” and “brainless”. But it is unclear why he would apparently turn on him so violently, or what he believed he might accomplish by shooting him.
While Right-wing commentators have claimed Routh is a “radical leftist”, his politics appear to be mudded.
After voting for Trump in 2016, he donated to Democratic candidates in 2020, and backed Nikki Haley’s challenge to Trump in the 2024 Republican primary. A vehicle outside his home in Hawaii displays an old “Biden-Harris” sticker.
Routh’s politics seems confused and his motivations unknown. Authorities say he is not speaking following his arrest on Sunday.
Why did the gunman have a Go-Pro?
A Go-Pro was discovered at the scene after the gunman fled, which authorities said showed they planned to record the assassination attempt.
However, it is not clear precisely what the compact camera – usually used for capturing adventure sports – would have been used for.
Would the gunman have kept it to watch the shooting back himself? Or was he planning to upload the footage to social media?
How long had the gunman been in the area?
Routh is registered as living at an address in Hawaii.
By contrast, Thomas Matthew Crooks – who fired at Trump at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in July – lived a relatively short distance away. Routh’s movements remain a mystery, at least for the moment.
That means it is unclear how long the gunman had been in Florida before taking up position with an AK-47 at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The assault rifle was
found along with ceramic body armour at the scene – something Andrew
McCabe, a former senior FBI official, said indicated “a very high level
of pre-planning”.
But whether Routh travelled to Florida with the intention of shooting Trump, or could have drawn up those plans later, is unclear.
The FBI said at at a press conference on Monday they were in the process of investigating how long he had been in the South Florida area.
Why wasn’t the gunman spotted by security?
Another unanswered question is why the gunman was not spotted by the Secret Service while he lay in wait at the golf course for almost twelve hours.
Officials claimed that Routh had taken up position at the course in the early hours of Sunday morning, citing data from the 58-year-old’s mobile phone that placed it at the treeline from 1:59am to 1:31pm.
Yet Trump’s security detail only noticed an AK-47 pointing out of the trees while the former president was playing golf just one hole away.
The Secret Service revealed on Monday that because Trump’s round of golf was not scheduled, agents did not sweep the perimeter.
The suspect had been in the bushes for the 12 hours that corresponded with his phone data, the FBI confirmed on Monday.
The assault rifle has a maximum effective range of some 330 yards, while the former president is estimated to have been some 300 to 500 yards away.
his was “not a long distance” for an AK-47 equipped with a scope, as Palm Beach county sheriff Ric Bradshaw noted.
Moreover, it comes after weeks of scrutiny and criticism of the Secret Service following the attempt on Trump’s life in July.
Law enforcement will likely be attempting to recreate the steps of the gunman on the day in question, but have so far not set out how the individual was able to get so close.
What was in the gunman’s car?
Routh was arrested on the I-95 highway, some 50 miles from Trump’s golf course, in a black Nissan.
The vehicle would have been searched by law enforcement after Routh’s apprehension.
Sources told CNN that the vehicle belonged to Routh’s daughter, which suggests that a background check has taken place. Court documents state that the number plates are registered to a different vehicle that was reported stolen.
The car in which Ryan Routh was arrested (circled)
The contents of that car, which have not been made public, could potentially shed light on the plans on the assassination attempt.
There is speculation that the car contains maps or other documents that could reveal what Routh knew of Trump’s movements and the planning that had gone into the alleged assassination attempt.
Warrants
are out for the FBI to search a number of addresses linked to the
suspect as well as vehicles, cameras and mobile phones. [SOURCE]
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