Ryan Routh, whose attempt to assassinate President Trump last year was thwarted when he was spotted hiding in shrubbery with a rifle, tried to stab himself in the neck after he was found guilty.
Routh attempted to stab himself with a pen moments after the verdict was read out on Tuesday afternoon in Fort Pierce, Florida. As he was restrained and escorted from the room by court marshals, his daughter shouted: “Dad, I love you, don’t do anything. I’ll get you out. He didn’t hurt anybody.”
The jury took three hours to deliberate on five charges, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and possessing a firearm and ammunition as a felon. Routh was convicted of all five and faces life in prison. He will be sentenced at a later date.
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Routh, 59, hid with a rifle behind shrubbery near Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on September 15 last year. He came within a few hundred yards of Trump before he was spotted and shot by a Secret Service agent. Routh fled in a vehicle and was arrested at a highway nearby.
