STUART, Fla. – The man arrested in connection with the apparent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump followed the sheriff’s instructions and was arrested without incident, a video of the arrest released on Monday showed.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office released the footage less than 24 hours after gunfire erupted near Trump’s Florida golf course, where the former president had been playing.
In body camera footage, several armed officers from sheriff’s deputies confronted 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh.
“Driver, take two steps to the right! Take two steps to the right! Driver go straight back, keep walking,” an unidentified deputy was heard and seen yelling at the suspect.
That’s when a man with a t-shirt pulled over his head, exposing his midsection, came into the camera area with his hands up.
Two law enforcement officers then grabbed his hands and handcuffed him, the video showed.
The deputy screamed instructions were an agent spotted Routh’s car and started pulling over the sweater, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told NBC News.
As soon as Routh was taken into custody, a detention deputy stayed with the suspect with his body camera activated in case he made any incriminating statements, according to Snyder.
Routh has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with a lost serial number, authorities said.
He was arrested Sunday while driving on Interstate 95. A witness who spotted Routh and his car was crucial in helping law enforcement quickly find the suspect, authorities said,
“If the witness hadn’t seen him, taken a picture of the car, given us the identification … I’d say he’d be at home resting and having a margarita right now,” Snyder told NBC News.
Law enforcement took advantage of Routh because they didn’t know deputies were on his side, the sheriff added.
“He was just riding with the traffic. Yeah, I think he may have thought he got away with it,” Snyder told reporters earlier Monday. “Of course he couldn’t know 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 where he came from.”
The sheriff said he wanted to know how an armed man could have been within a few hundred feet of the former president.
“I think that’s the question the FBI (and) the Secret Service is focusing on today. Is this guy part of a conspiracy? Is he a lone shooter?” Snyder said. “If he’s a lone shooter, President Trump is a lot safer because we have him. But if he’s part of a conspiracy, this whole thing takes on a really ominous tone.”
Jesse Kirsch and Carmen Gonzales report from Stuart, Florida, David K. Li reports from New York.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
