(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Jeff Veltri, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami Field Office, told reporters Monday that the bureau received a tip on alleged failed Trump assassin Ryan Routh in 2019—but didn’t take any action.
“[Routh] was the subject of a previously closed 2019 tip to the FBI, where it was alleged that he was a felon in possession of a firearm,” Veltri said at a Monday press conference.
“In following up on the tip, the alleged complainant was interviewed and did not verify—I repeat, did not verify—providing the initial information. The FBI passed that info to local law enforcement in Honolulu.”
“He was the subject of a previously closed 2019 tip to the FBI, where it was alleged that he was a felon in possession of a firearm. In following up on the tip, the alleged complainant was interviewed and did not verify—I repeat, did not verify—providing the initial information.… https://t.co/O92rNo7ljp pic.twitter.com/NcunZINvO7
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) September 16, 2024
Routh has a criminal history dating back to at least 2002 that includes possession of stolen goods, concealed weapons and possession of weapons of mass destruction, resisting arrest and multiple traffic charges.
His federal charges announced Monday included possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession and receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
At Monday’s press conference, the FBI said it’s still investigating whether others were involved in the second assassination attempt against Trump in as many months.
Additionally, Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe told reporters that Routh never fired at Trump. The Secret Service spotted him with a rifle along the tree line and fired at him—causing him to flee the scene. He was apprehended some 45 minutes later by Martin County Sheriff’s Officers.
Officials declined to say how Routh was able to escape the scene and make it to another county before his arrest.
Ryan Routh’s NC rap sheet is pages and pages long. Most recent charge was in March of 2019. There is no way he wasn’t known to authorities. None. pic.twitter.com/7M32VKw940
— 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑠 (@chiIIum) September 16, 2024
Sunday’s assassination attempt on Trump was the latest case where a deranged gunman had already been on the FBI’s radar before.
Prominent examples of mass shooters who were on the FBI’s “radar” include Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza, Orlando Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen and Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz.
In Lanza’s case, FBI agents had reportedly previously questioned him for hacking computers.
With Orlando shooter Mateen, the FBI reportedly went as far as investigating him in direct relation to possibly being a terrorist threat—twice. “But the F.B.I. soon ended its examination of Mr. Mateen after finding no evidence that he posed a terrorist threat to his community,” the New York Times reported in June 2016.
Matteen’s father was also an FBI informant for more than a decade, as was reported by NPR in March 2018.
Then, there’s Parkland. In 2018, The New York Times report that “The F.B.I. received a tip last month from someone close to Nikolas Cruz that he owned a gun and had talked of committing a school shooting, the bureau revealed Friday, but it acknowledged that it had failed to investigate.”
Additionally, Buffalo shooter Payton Gendron was possibly communicating with a retired federal agent within as little as 30 minutes of his killing spree. Gendron’s possible links to a retired federal agent are more bizarre when coupled with a July 2019 story from the Buffalo News about FBI agents tracking potential mass shooters in the area.
Most recently, the 14-year-old student who opened fire at a Georgia high school and killed four people earlier this month was revealed to have been on the FBI’s radar since at least May 2023.
“In May 2023, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time. The online threats contained photographs of guns. Within 24 hours, the FBI determined the online post originated in Georgia, and the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office referred the information to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office for action,” the FBI said in a statement earlier this month.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
