Law Enforcement Officials Testify About Aftermath Of Discovering Alleged Attempted Trump Assassin

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Several law enforcement officials took the stand Friday to detail how they responded on the day they discovered Ryan Routh’s alleged attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump.

The trial, which wrapped up early on its fifth day, is moving along faster than anticipated, as Routh takes little time to cross-examine witnesses.

Routh is representing himself as he faces five charges for allegedly attempting to assassinate Trump at his Florida golf course. The jury heard Friday from two officials — Sergeant Kenneth Mays and Lt. William Gale of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office — who responded to the situation on Sept. 15, 2024, along with several FBI agents who recovered evidence from the scene.

Mays, who was helping with protection that day, explained how he sprang into action after hearing “shots fired!” over the sheriff’s office communications channel. With no access to the Secret Service channel and no further information provided over his own, he began trying to figure out what was happening.

After a Secret Service agent at the golf course clubhouse was unable to provide him with any information, Mays parked on Summit Boulevard, where he heard another agent and found a spot in the bushes cleared away like “somebody had been in there.” In that spot — which was Routh’s hiding place — Mays found a rifle leaned against the fence and two bags clipped to it, which he asked Gale to examine using X-ray.

When Gale arrived on the scene after hearing “shots fired!” over the radio, he encountered a citizen, Tommy McGee, with information about a man he spotted fleeing.

McGee, a mental health counselor, testified Thursday that he followed Routh after hearing the gunshots. He said he did so to record Routh’s license plate number and to take a photo.