FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. — Former Forsyth County Sheriff and FBI agent Bill Schatzman spoke to WFMY News 2 on Monday in the wake of the second attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
The suspect in the apparent assassination attempt, 58-year-old Ryan Routh, is from Greensboro. He has been formally charged with possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Routh was arrested Sunday after Secret Service agents saw the muzzle of an AK-47-style rifle pointing through shrubbery at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. Authorities said Routh initially fled the scene in an SUV before being tracked down and taken into custody.
Schatzman said the FBI has likely spent the hours since the incident digging into every aspect of Routh's background.
"They will attempt to determine his education, his experiences, family, friends, locations where he lived, criminal record ... any employments that he has had, social outlets, places where he would have partied or hung out," Schatzman said. "Any kind of political or any kind of associations. If there were any group of people that he might have associated with or any group he might be part of.
"Understanding the individual is key to preventing an action to occur in the future."
Routh has a lengthy criminal record in Guilford County. He has been charged numerous times for varying degrees of offenses, ranging from hit-and-run to the possession of a weapon of mass destruction, according to records.
The latter charge stemmed from a 2002 incident where Routh was accused of barricading himself in a home in Guilford County.
"Assassins don't start out as murderers and assassins," Schatzman said. "They do other things first."
Schatzman said if he was still in the FBI or was a decision-maker in the Secret Service, he would apply more resources toward making sure Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are protected adequately in the leadup to the general election.
He also believes this latest attempted assassination was the result of a mental health crisis. Schatzman added that more resources should be provided to inmates in jails and prisons when it comes to mental health care.
"No sane person wants to shoot and kill another person," he said. "This is mental illness to some degree ... It is my experience and thought that we need to address mental illness in this country."
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