West palm beach, 17 Sept

The man suspected in an apparent assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump camped outside a Florida golf course with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours, lying in wait for the former president before a Secret Service agent thwarted the potential attack and opened fire, according to court documents filed Monday.

Ryan Wesley Routh did not fire any shots, never had Trump in his line of sight and sped away after being shot at by an agent who spotted him, officials said. He was arrested in a neighbouring county.

Routh, 58, appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach to face federal firearms charges, starting a criminal case in the final weeks of a presidential race already touched by violence and upheaval. Though no one was injured, the episode marked the second attempt on Trump’s life in as many months, raising questions about the security provided to him during a time of amped-up political rhetoric and what the Secret Service chief called an “unprecedented and hyper-dynamic threat environment.”

Even as Trump’s Republican allies and some Democrats demanded answers about how a would-be shooter was able to get so close to Trump, Ronald Rowe Jr., the Secret Service’s acting director, offered a fiery defense of the agents he said were “rising to this moment” despite needing additional resources.

The agent fired, and Routh escaped into a sport utility, leaving behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style assault rifle and a plastic bag containing food. He had been at the golf course’s tree line from 1:59 am to 2:31 pm, according to an FBI affidavit that cited cellphone data. The FBI is continuing to investigate how long the Hawaii man had been in Florida, said Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office.

Body camera footage posted Monday on Facebook by the Martin County sheriff’s office showed Routh’s arrest. The video shows him walking backward with his hands over his head on the side of a road before being handcuffed and led away by law enforcement.

Routh wrote that he once voted for Trump and must take part of the blame for the “child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless.” Voter records show he registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most recently voting in person during the state’s Democratic primary in March.  —AP