A federal judge on Monday ordered Ryan Routh, the man accused in connection with an assassination attempt against former President Trump earlier this month, held in custody. 

Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe granted the government’s request to detain Ryan Routh pending the resolution of charges during a court hearing in Florida. Routh, who was clad in a blue prison jumpsuit and shackled by his hands and feet, appeared engaged and paid attention during the hearing. 

Prior to the court proceeding, the Justice Department asked the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida to keep Routh in pretrial detention. McCabe said federal prosecutors met their burden and the weight of the evidence was strong.

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Routh has been charged federally with possessing a gun with a scratched-out number and with possessing a gun illegally as a felon, though more serious charges are likely pending. 

Federal prosecutors also told the judge that the government intends to ask a grand jury to indict Routh on the much more serious charge of the attempted assassination of Trump, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

In addition, prosecutors said they have an audio recording of a recent jailhouse phone call from Routh to a female friend. During the call, Routh said he was “sorry,” while the friend said she was still “processing” what happened. 

A court sketch depicts Ryan Routh as he appears in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida on Monday, September 23, 2024. Routh is facing charges related to the alleged attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump last week. (Lothar Speer)

“You did the worst thing you could have possibly done,” she told Routh, prompting a second apology. 

Routh will likely face additional charges in the coming days, which could include aggravated assault for allegedly pointing the rifle at a U.S. Secret Service agent and making threats against a former president, State Attorney Dave Aronberg previously told Fox News Digital. 

In addition to the federal case against Routh, the state of Florida is also investigating the suspected assassination attempt. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a press conference last Tuesday that Florida will pursue more charges against Routh and that his offense should merit life in prison.   

In a letter dated Monday to FBI Director Christopher Wray and U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody asked them not to bring a specific charge against Routh, otherwise it would suspend the state’s investigation. 

In a statement, Trump said the federal government has mishandled the Routh case and prefers Florida take it over, calling the charges against Routh a “slap on the wrist” while stating the Justice Department and FBI are conflicted because of the prosecutions against him. 

“If the DOJ and FBI cannot do their job honestly and without bias, and hold the aspiring assassin responsible to the full extent of the Law, Governor Ron DeSantis and the State of Florida have already agreed to take the lead on the investigation and prosecution,” Trump said in a statement. 

A court sketch depicts Ryan Routh’s appearance in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida on Monday, September 23, 2024. Routh is facing charges related to the alleged attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump last week. (Lothar Speer)

“Florida charges would be much more serious than the ones the FBI has announced,” he added. “The TRUTH would be followed, wherever it leads. OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM IS CORRUPT AND DISCREDITED, especially as it pertains to the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. LET FLORIDA HANDLE THE CASE!”

“To be clear, I believe it would be a grave mistake for the federal government to invoke this provision, and I urge you to cooperate with the State’s investigation rather than frustrate it,” Moddy wrote. 

Routh is accused of targeting the 45th president as he waited about 12 hours outside a golf club where Trump was playing a round. 

McCabe said it appeared Routh was stalking Trump for 30 days and had a passport with him when he was caught along with a phone, which had a search history of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.

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Ryan Routh camped out near the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach with an SKS-style rifle, a backpack, and a shopping bag. The two bags both contained plates capable of stopping small arms fire, a preliminary ballistics testing showed.

Federal prosecutor Mark Dispoto described Roth’s location next to the sixth hole, with the gun and bags as “nothing short of a sniper’s nest.” Dispoto also said the two bags next to the gun, which had plates, or tiles in them which were bulletproof, was part of an effort to protect himself if Secret Service agents returned fire.

On Monday, the Justice Department also released a chilling letter written by the suspect. 

The Justice Department obtained the letter from a witness who says they received it inside a box delivered to them by Routh several months prior to the assassination attempt. Authorities say the witness opened the box only after hearing Routh was suspected in the attack. 

A court sketch depicts Ryan Routh’s appearance in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida on Monday, September 23, 2024. Routh is facing charges related to the alleged attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump last week. (Lothar Speer)

The box contained several handwritten letters as well as ammunition, among other things. One of the letters, addressed “Dear World,” discussed the assassination attempt. 

Routh had written in the letter that he had failed and that he would give $150,000 to anyone who could finish the job. 

In a court filing, prosecutors also referred to Routh’s conviction for possession of a weapon of mass destruction in 2002. They told McCabe that the device was a “binary explosive device” with a fuse.

FBI investigators carry a box of evidence from the perimeter of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. Ryan Routh was arrested earlier this week after allegedly attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump while hiding in the bushes along the golf course. (Mega for Fox News Digital)

At one point during Monday’s hearing, Routh smiled while his public defender argued that the majority of his 100-plus arrests were non-violent, including passing bad checks and the theft of sinks from construction sites.

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom, Jake Gibson, David Spunt and Danamarie McNicholl contributed to this report. 

A Virginia elementary school photographer reportedly lost her job after being accused of making improper remarks to young students, including allegedly asking one boy, “Can I eat your soul?” 

The principal of Chittum Elementary School in Chesapeake, Bridget Outlaw, said in an email to parents last week that a photographer hired to take school pictures was escorted off campus for making “inappropriate comments” to students, WTKR reported. The photographer, who was not named by school or company officials, was employed by Lifetouch, a family and school photography service owned by Shutterfly. 

In an interview, parent Rachel Fjeld told WTKR that her son was sitting to have his school picture taken when the photographer allegedly asked him, “Can I steal your identity?” and “Can I eat your soul?” 

“You can say all the things you want to say about good vs. evil, God vs. the devil, or demons or whatever, but at the end of the day what was said was not funny, and it wasn’t OK. It was a child in an uncomfortable situation,” Fjeld said. “I know people are trying to say, ‘Oh she’s just joking. It was just funny,’ but it’s not funny. That’s not funny. And what that doesn’t do is put any child at ease, it just scares them.”

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“She asked him, ‘Can I steal your identity?’ His response was just, ‘No.’ Her next question was, ‘Can I eat your soul?’ And, you know, when he was expressing it to us he was crying, he was very upset and he said ‘No, no,’” Fjeld said of the exchange between her son and the photographer. 

“Her next question was, ‘Well, then what can I eat?’ He told me, he said, ‘Mommy I didn’t know what to say so I said the first thing that came to mind was, ‘You can have noodles, you can eat noodles,’ and her response was, ‘Demons don’t eat noodles.’”

The mother, who initially sounded the alarm about the alleged remarks in a since-privatized Facebook post, also thanked the elementary school for their swift response. 

A school bus arrives at George Mason Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, on Aug. 21, 2023. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“It went to the principal, who is amazing, I will say. The school handled it – we so appreciate it. They were very quick. They immediately escorted her off the premises, they called us,” Fjeld told the outlet.

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Once the comments were reported, school administration “immediately addressed the issue, and this individual was escorted off of school property,” Outlaw said in an email to the school community last week, according to the local station. “Parents of students who reported the concern were notified.”

“We want to commend our students for quickly reporting the incident,” Outlaw said. “We are thankful that our message of ‘see something, say something’ was effectively used in this situation.”

This file photo shows a photographer and school children during “picture day” at Rogers International School on Sept. 23, 2020, in Stamford, Connecticut. (John Moore/Getty Images)

On Friday, a Shutterfly spokesperson told WTKR that the photographer involved in the Chittum Elementary incident was no longer employed as a photographer by Lifetouch and an internal investigation is underway. 

“At Lifetouch, our number one priority is the safety of every student we photograph,” the company said in a statement obtained by the outlet. “We have numerous policies and procedures in place to ensure that safety, including training and background checks on all of our photographers. We take any allegation about a photographer very seriously, and are conducting a thorough internal investigation. In the meantime, the employee in question has been removed from all photography duties.” 

New Orleans, which was dubbed America’s murder capital just two years ago during a post-COVID crime spike, has recorded a decrease in homicides by about 50% since 2022, including a 71% drop in juvenile homicides since 2023.

Anne Kirkpatrick, who was named superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department — the equivalent of a police chief — just last year, attributes the recent success in preventing violent crime to collaboration between local, federal and state officials.

“There has definitely been a turnaround in this city,” Kirkpatrick told Fox News Digital. “We are, by far, outpacing the national trend. … There is a national trend of a drop in these rates. Ours are twice what the national trend is. It is not by accident, and it is intentional. We actually are very strategic, and we can point to a couple of strategies that we know are making a difference.”

The police superintendent noted that the police department speaks weekly with community organizations, state police, federal authorities and district attorneys. 

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“We literally get together once a week in discussion, and then we use a policing strategy that has been around for a while,” Kirkpatrick explained.

That strategy is called Operation Ceasefire, which originated in Boston and which New Orleans has adopted with its own unique take on the model specific to New Orleans crime.

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“We have named it GRIP, which stands for Gun Reduction Intervention Plan. So, in a big-picture way, we know that we have certain repeat offenders who use guns. We call them trigger-pullers,” the superintendent explained. “These are people that are identified, and therefore, we focus on the offenders. So, when you have a small group of people who are responsible for most of the violent crime, it’s really a strategy that goes: identify them … try to intervene and disrupt that cycle. … We will arrest and incarcerate you if we have to, but we also are taking a holistic, public health approach.”

New Orleans has recorded a 50% decrease in homicides since 2022. (Fox News Digital)

Michael Hecht, CEO of the Greater New Orleans Inc. nonprofit that aims to better the city’s businesses and overall quality of life, similarly said that while major cities across the United States have generally seen a decrease in homicides between 2020 and now, The Big Easy saw a particularly drastic drop in violent crime.

“Two years ago, New Orleans was really on the precipice. In 2019, we had enjoyed a 19-year low in homicides. So, it was shocking and really quite tragic, then, in 2022, we were suddenly on a trajectory to become the homicide capital of the country,” Hecht explained. “And that was deemed to be, first and foremost, morally unacceptable but also economically potentially devastating.”

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Hecht noted that on top of the murder surge, there was also an increase in carjackings and a general “sense of terror across all neighborhoods” during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Since those dark days of 2022, our murder rate is down 50%,” Hecht said. “And most importantly, over the last year, the juvenile homicide rate is down over 70%. Shootings have declined by a similar amount. Carjackings have declined by almost 70%. And armed robberies have declined by 55%.”

Michael Hecht, CEO of the Greater New Orleans Inc. nonprofit that aims to better the city’s businesses and overall quality of life, says that while major cities across the United States have generally seen a decrease in homicides between 2020 and now, The Big Easy saw a particularly drastic drop in violent crime. (NOLA Coalition)

In response to arguments that other cities are seeing the same trend, Hecht noted that New Orleans “is actually enjoying the fourth-steepest average decline across all major categories of crime of any major city in the United States,” and the city is also doing “about three to four times better than the national trend,” citing an analysis from the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

How were city leaders able to accomplish such a feat? Hecht pointed to several different actions and organizations that stepped up to help curb crime, including Louisiana Gov. Jeffrey Landry’s efforts to sign legislation aimed at preventing violence and increasing punishments for fentanyl dealing and carjacking, as well as creating a specialized law enforcement unit called Troop NOLA.

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Sgt. Ariel Mercadal of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office keeps a watchful eye over parade crowds. (Fox News)

Hecht also noted three specific initiatives that Greater New Orleans believes helped lower homicide numbers: first, “more proactive policing, particularly targeting the worst of the worst to get them off the streets”; second, enhanced use of modern technology that helps improve the New Orleans Police Department’s “solve rate”; and third, more cooperation between federal, state and local authorities. 

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“There have been ideologies or communities that have been just focus on policing or just focus on systemic issues. And we’ve said, ‘No, you need to focus on both of them simultaneously because, of course, there’s a feedback loop. If you don’t have safety today, then you’re not going to have resources to invest in tomorrow.”

As far as the significant drop in juvenile crime, Hecht pointed to the fact that public schools in New Orleans struggled during the pandemic, which led more juveniles to turn to crime and violence, but they have since “posted some of the strongest gains in the state.”

A woman reaches for beads on Bourbon Street while celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)

The New Orleans Career Center has put a heavy emphasis on helping local youth get jobs to keep them away from violence.

“There’s no question, as many say, that nothing stops a bullet like a job.”

— Michael Hecht, CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc.

Leaders have also made improvements to recreational sports, and faith-based communities have helped provide counseling services to “kids that are having trouble at home.” The CEO mentioned the NOLA Coalition, an organization made up of members of all walks of New Orleans life, including Greater New Orleans, that aims to “create a safer and more prosperous New Orleans for all residents.”

Increased investment in the city allowed New Orleans to hire New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, who could not be reached for comment. Hecht said Kirkpatrick has “undoubtedly been part of the success story.” (Handout)

“What the NOLA Coalition did by representing a constituency that was so diverse — black and white, Republican, Democrat, rich and poor, that really represented the fabric of the city … is it created what I call ‘positive pressure’ on our leadership to do the right thing, whether that was investing more money in conditions for our police officers or investing more money in our schools, and we also put our money where our mouth is by raising this money from the local corporate community,” Hecht said. “We demonstrated that we weren’t just all talk.”

“We demonstrated that we weren’t just all talk.”

— Michael Hecht, CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc.

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That increased investment in the city allowed New Orleans to hire Kirkpatrick, who Hecht said has “undoubtedly been part of the success story.”

New Orleans has seen a recent decrease in nearly all categories of violent crime. (Fox News Digital)

The NOLA Coalition has also raised $8 million of its $15 million to support local youth programs like mentoring and mental health services, as well as recreational improvements.

“The closure of the schools, combined with the national pullback on proactive policing, combined to create this toxic environment that was very dangerous. And so the fact that we’ve reversed it so dramatically is encouraging, but it’s also pretty startling,” Hecht said. “I mean, when we started the NOLA Coalition two years ago, our intention, our hope, was to abate the violence. If you had said success is going to look like in two years, you’re going to be number four in the country for the most rapid decrease, I would have said … that’s a nice North Star. But we’re dealing with a lot of complexities here. So, it’s been pretty head-snapping.”

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Compared to national numbers from the Major Cities Chiefs Association, New Orleans has seen an approximate 45% decrease in homicides since last year (about 50% compared to 2022), whereas there was an average 18% drop in homicides nationally across major cities. New Orleans also recorded a 44% decrease in robberies and a 21% decrease in aggravated assaults this year compared to last, whereas nationally, cities recorded an average 8% decrease in homicides and a 5% drop in aggravated assault. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray praised the city’s work during a visit to The Big Easy this month, describing their results in combating violent crime as “extraordinary.” (FBI)

The positive change is welcome news for The Big Easy, which is hosting Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9. Hecht said New Orleans leaders, including himself, are making infrastructure improvements leading up to America’s most-watched event, but they plan on maintaining and continuing those improvements after the game.

FBI Director Christopher Wray praised the city’s work during a visit this month, describing their results in combating violent crime as “extraordinary.”

“It’s something we want to replicate going forward,” Wray said, according to Nola.com.