FBI agents and sheriff’s deputies responded to businesses near Trump International Golf Club in Florida to seize security video within two hours of a Secret Service agent’s firing at a suspected would-be assassin, business owners said in interviews.
Authorities say Ryan Wesley Routh was lying in wait for former President Donald Trump at the West Palm Beach golf course Sunday with a semiautomatic rifle.
The FBI has called the incident an apparent assassination attempt, and Routh is accused of being a felon in possession of a firearm and of having his weapon’s serial number obliterated. He remains in custody, according to court records.
The businesses near the course and their owners did not want to be named, citing privacy reasons.
The FBI visited one business almost exactly within two hours of the shooting, and law enforcement took the security video hard drive, which may have contained images of Routh leaving the road along the Trump golf course, a store employee said.
The Secret Service engagement with Routh was at about 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday, and the business said FBI special agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy visited it around or just before 3:30 p.m. ET.
Another business owner who was visited by the FBI believed the business may have had security video of Routh leaving the scene, and the business owner said the FBI copied the file containing the video.
When an NBC News reporter visited the business for a second time to try to obtain the video, the business owner said the FBI had deleted the file from his machine.
A third business said agents visited it for security video after the shooting.
Law enforcement experts say the FBI is most likely trying to develop a timeline to determine what Routh did before and after the shooting.
Video and witness interviews can sometimes be used to develop additional information, such as whom Routh may have been talking to or what he was speaking about, all potentially helpful for investigators trying to determine a motive, the experts say.
A spokesperson for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment, referring NBC News to the FBI. A spokesperson for the FBI, which is leading the investigation, also declined to comment on its investigative work.
“We appreciate your interest in this case. However, in order to preserve the integrity of the investigation, we have to decline comment," the FBI spokesperson said.
Federal charging documents allege that Routh arrived at the golf course at 1:59 a.m. ET, based on FBI cellphone analysis.
What is not known publicly is how he parked his vehicle before the Secret Service shooting or how he got to I-95 North after it.
The FBI typically takes possession of the physical electronic media in prosecutions to preserve the devices’ metadata so it can be used in court testimony, based on an NBC News analysis of prior national security cases.
Routh’s next court appearance, which will determine whether he will be released pending his federal trial, is scheduled for Monday. He has not yet been asked to enter a plea.
