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A suspected gunman is now in custody after Secret Service agents foiled what appears to have been a second assassination attempt on Donald Trump in the space of just two months.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was identified by federal officials as the suspect who was allegedly armed with a powerful AK-47-style assault rifle and aimed it through the bushes at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when the former president was playing a round of golf on Sunday.
The suspect was around 300 to 500 yards away from Trump at the time. West Palm Beach sheriff Ric Bradshaw said in a press conference that, at around 1.30pm, Secret Service agents spotted the butt of the gun through the fence and fired shots toward the suspect.
It is not clear whether the accused gunman fired any shots.
Routh allegedly fled the scene, with a witness taking a photo and noting the license plate of his black Nissan SUV, authorities said.
Officers from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, based near to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, tracked down the vehicle on the I-95 and captured the suspect. He has been taken into custody and is being held at the local county jail.
The motive for the alleged attack remains unclear, but the FBI is treating it as an “attempted assassination,” the bureau said in a statement.
When he fled, Routh allegedly left several items behind at the golf club fence: an AK-47 with a scope, two backpacks with ceramic tile inside, and a GoPro video camera, which he allegedly intended to use to film the incident, authorities said.
While details about what exactly happened and what may have motivated the suspect remain something of a mystery, information is emerging about Routh.
Here’s what we know so far:
Ryan Wesley Routh’s criminal record
Routh has a criminal record dating back to at least 2002, when he was convicted in Guilford County, North Carolina, on one felony count of possession of a weapon of mass destruction, according to a review of state court records.
The Greensboro News & Record reported at the time that a man of the same name and the same age as Routh had fled from police during a traffic stop and holed up inside a local business, United Roofing, triggering a three-hour stand-off.
The weapon of mass destruction charge was brought against Routh over a fully automatic machine gun he had, according to the News & Record.
Routh was the owner of United Roofing, according to public records, which list a company email in his name. He wrote on his LinkedIn profile that he had relocated to Hawaii in 2018, a move indicated by his address history displayed in a public records search.
In 2010, Routh was convicted of possession of stolen goods, and sentenced to probation. Further details of the charges are unclear.
A penchant for ‘stupid’ behavior and ‘escapades’
A former employee of Routh’s told The Independent she remembers his stand-off with police in 2002, adding that her former boss was widely derided for his penchant for doing “stupid s***.”
Tina Cooper worked for Routh at United Roofing during the incident. She said: “He had a stand-off here, and I don’t know what he was thinking then, either,” adding that Routh “did some stupid s*** down here, and ... got away with some of it.”
Although he no longer had a valid license, Routh was behind the wheel when he was pulled over by Greensboro police, according to news reports from the time. He fled the scene and drove to the United Roofing offices, where he barricaded himself inside, armed with a fully automatic machine gun, the Greensboro News & Record reported.
Three hours later, Routh surrendered. He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon of mass destruction, for the machine gun, as well as resisting, delaying and obstructing a law enforcement officer and driving while his license was revoked.
Tracy Fulk, the officer who arrested Routh that day, said in an interview with Wired: “I figured he was either dead or in prison by now. I had no clue that he had moved on and was continuing his escapades.”
Political social media posts
Posts on Routh’s now-suspended social media accounts offer a glimpse into his political stance.
His social media posts suggest the suspect was once a Trump supporter, who voted for the former president in the 2016 election. However, he became more critical of Trump in recent years.
“While you were my choice in 2106 [sic], I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate,” he wrote in July 2020 on Twitter, now called X. “But we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving. I will be glad when you gone.”
He started to lean towards the president, Joe Biden, and vice-president Kamala Harris.
In a post in April this year, he tagged Biden’s presidential account and said the campaign should be “called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA ... make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”
Suspect’s family react to ‘crazy’ news
Routh’s son Oran Routh said his dad “hates Trump as every reasonable person does,” according to the Daily Mail. He added: “I don’t like Trump either.”
That said, Oran was shocked to learn that his father is the suspect in the attempted assassination of the former president. He said he has “never known” his dad to own a gun or do anything “bat**** like this.”
“That’s crazy. I know my dad and love my dad, but that’s nothing like him,” he told the outlet. “He’s not a violent person,” Oran added. “He’s a hard worker and a great dad. He’s a great dude, a nice guy and has worked his whole f***ing life.”
The father and son are currently not speaking, Oran said, explaining that he did not even know his dad was in Florida.
Oran also told CNN: “Ryan is my father, and I don’t have any comment beyond a character profile of him as a loving and caring father, and honest, hardworking man.
“I don’t know what’s happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion, because from the little I’ve heard, it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent,” he said. “He’s a good father, and a great man, and I hope you can portray him in an honest light.”
Pro-Ukraine activist
Routh has previously said that he would be willing to fight and die in the war in Ukraine.
“I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE,” he wrote on X following the Russian invasion in early 2022, according to The New York Times.
On Signal, Routh wrote in his bio that “Civilians must change this war and prevent future wars.”
“Each one of us must do our part daily in the smallest steps [to] help support human rights, freedom and democracy; we each must help the chinese,” his WhatsApp profile stated.
He spoke to The New York Times last year for an article chronicling Americans volunteering to help Ukraine win its war against Russia.
Routh said he went to Ukraine after the Russian invasion and that he aimed to get Afghan soldiers to fight in the war. However, Ukrainian forces have described his claims as “delusional.”
Oleksandr Shaguri, an officer in the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Land Forces Command in Ukraine, told CNN that Routh had contacted Ukraine’s foreign legion on multiple occasions but was never part of its volunteer fighting forces.
“We can confirm this person reached out to us online multiple times,” Shaguri said, adding: “The best way to describe his messages is — delusional ideas.”
Another former International Legion official told The Daily Telegraph: “He was called out a number of times by Legion people and told to stop his shenanigans, but that didn’t seem to stop him. He was mostly quite eccentric. I could smell a mile away that he was full of s***.”
When Routh was in Washington last year, he told The Times over the phone about a diplomat who thought his efforts to help Ukraine would be successful. But when a US fighter appeared to talk down to him in a message shared with the paper, Routh said the fighter “needs to be shot.”
Routh told The Times that he was in Washington to meet with the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe to argue for more backing for Ukraine.
The suspect added at the time that he was looking for recruits for Ukraine among Afghan soldiers who had fled from the Taliban. He added that he was planning on moving some of them from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He claimed that dozens had said that they were interested.
“We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan since it’s such a corrupt country,” he told the paper. However, the former Legion official has called Routh out on this, and said he promised to provide “hundreds of recruits from Afghanistan and Syria that never materialised.”
Second assassination attempt in two months for Trump
The incident comes just two months after Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
In that deadly attack, gunman Thomas Crooks opened fire on the former president with an AR-style rifle from the rooftop of a nearby building.
A bullet struck Trump in the ear and one rallygoer was killed before Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service snipers.
Since that shooting, the Secret Service has faced pointed questions about the extent and competence of security details protecting the former president and other political figures.
