The alleged would-be assassin who came to Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday reportedly secured himself a sniper nest in a security weak spot that has previously been exploited by paparazzi.
The suspected would-be assassin, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, allegedly brought a scoped rifle with him to Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course in Florida and stood within 300-500 yards of the former president before Secret Service agents spotted him in the shrubbery and fired four to six shots. He was arrested outside the golf course shortly after. The Secret Service confirmed on Monday that the alleged would-be assassin did not exchange gunfire and did not have a line of sight on Trump.
According to a recent report from Fox News, the would-be assassin camped in the sniper’s nest for 12 hours and even brought snacks. For years, the vantage point has been seen as a security risk due to it being regularly used by paparazzi.
“The tree line at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, has been known for years to be a vantage point for photographers looking to catch a candid glimpse of the former president and other VIPs,” noted the report. Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for the 15th Judicial Circuit, which covers Palm Beach County, confirmed this.
“There have been previous individuals who have taken pictures of the former president while he’s golfing,” said Dave Aronberg. “They’ve gone through the shrubs and been able to poke a camera through the fencing. You would think that perhaps maybe they would consider someone scoping the perimeter.”
Aronberg commended the Secret Service for covering a large area.
“It’s a huge area to cover,” he said. “It’s not so easy just to keep walking around at all times because someone could slip in and slip out there.”
However, an unnamed photo agency told the New York Post that photographers will often make their presence known to the Secret Service and have generally maintained fashionable rapport with agents when seeking a good vantage point for photographs.
Homeless people have also been caught loitering around the fence.
Pat Diaz, a former Miami-Dade homicide detective, said the Secret Service should be doing regular K-9 sweeps around the exterior ahead of the president’s arrival.
“They didn’t check the exterior, clearly,” he said.