The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:
Ryan
Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, has been charged by a criminal complaint in the
Southern District of Florida with firearms charges related to an incident at
Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15.
Routh was
charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession and
receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number and made his initial
appearance today before Magistrate Judge Ryon M. McCabe in the federal
courthouse in West Palm Beach. A detention hearing has been scheduled for Sept.
23. The investigation remains ongoing.
According to
allegations in the criminal complaint, a Secret Service agent walking the golf
course perimeter saw what appeared to be a rifle poking out of the tree line.
After the agent fired a service weapon in the direction of the rifle, a witness
saw a man later identified as Routh fleeing the area of the tree line. Routh
was later apprehended by officers from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, in
coordination with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
The complaint
alleges that in the area of the tree line from which Routh fled, agents found a
digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a black
plastic bag containing food. The serial number on the rifle was obliterated.
According to
the complaint, Routh was convicted of felonies in North Carolina in December
2002 and March 2010.
The FBI is
leading the ongoing investigation. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives and the U.S. Secret Service are providing assistance.
The U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Counterterrorism
Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting
the case.
A criminal complaint is merely an allegation. All
defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt
in a court of law.
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