Trump Florida assassination attempt suspect: What we know

( NewsNation ) — A man who allegedly pointed an AK-47-style rifle through the fence at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach on Sunday, while the former president was golfing nearby, has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Ryan Wesley Routh , 58, faces up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 fines for each charge. He was taken into custody following a court appearance Monday, authorities say.

A pretrial detention hearing has been set for Sept. 23 and an arraignment set for Sept. 30.

Trump’s 2nd assassination attempt

Routh is a white male who authorities believe to be the suspect who was crouched in bushes near the golf club perimeter, armed with a weapon equipped with a scope.

Two backpacks and a GoPro camera were also found with the firearm near the perimeter from which the suspect had fled.

Local authorities said the gunman was about 400-500 yards away from former President Donald Trump.

At approximately 1:30 p.m. local time, authorities received a call reporting shots fired at the golf course where Trump was playing a round of golf.

A witness told police the suspect fled the scene in a black Nissan and provided investigators with photos of the suspect’s license plate. Using that photo, authorities say they put out a “very urgent” bulletin for area police to be on the lookout for the suspect’s vehicle.

Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder said his deputies “immediately flooded” northbound Interstate 95, deploying to every exit between the Palm Beach County line to the south and St. Lucie County line to the north.

“One of my road patrol units saw the vehicle, matched the tag and we set up on the vehicle,” Snyder said. “We pinched in on the car, got it safely stopped and got the driver in custody.”

Snyder told WPTV that the suspect “was not armed when we took him out of the car.”

The man had a calm, flat demeanor and showed little emotion when he was stopped by police, Snyder said, saying the suspect did not question why he was being pulled over.

“He never asked, ‘What is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights, a lot going on. He never questioned it,” Snyder said.

A social media post by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office indicated the suspect was apprehended near Palm City, Florida, about a 45-mile drive north of Trump’s golf course. Northbound lanes of I-95 were shut down, the sheriff’s office said.

Who is Ryan Wesley Routh?

Routh lived in the Greensboro, North Carolina, area before moving to Hawaii in 2018, where he and his son operated a company building sheds, according to an archived version of the webpage for the business.

Voter records indicate he was an unaffiliated voter but did vote in the Democratic primary in Guilford County.

The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction has records for Routh going back to 1997 for charges such as no operator’s license.

Routh was convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, according to online North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records. Per the News & Record , he barricaded himself inside a business with a gun in Greensboro.

In 2003, he was sentenced for driving without a license, carrying a concealed weapon and hit-and-run. In 2010 he was convicted of possessing stolen goods. He was given probation for all of these charges, according to the DAC website.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg told NewsNation that the suspect was not previously on local law enforcement’s radar. Routh had made “bizarre” social media posts about Ukraine before the incident.

Law enforcement has not released any more information on the case.

Ryan Routh’s social media posts

Social media posts allegedly belonging to Routh indicate he was a believer in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and he had posted that he had voted for Trump in 2016 but was disappointed with him after the fact, expressing support for former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in various posts .

In June 2020, he made a post on X directed at then-President Trump to say he would win reelection if he issued an executive order for the Justice Department to prosecute police misconduct.

However, in recent years, his posts suggest he soured on Trump, and he expressed support for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

In July, following the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania, Routh urged Biden and Harris to visit those wounded in the shooting at the hospital and to attend the funeral of a former fire chief killed at the rally.

Federal campaign finance records show Routh made 19 small political donations totaling $140 since 2019 using his Hawaii address through ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates.

Ryan Routh’s alleged Ukrainian ties

The New York Times said it interviewed him for a feature on pro-Ukrainian foreign fighters last year. The Times said Routh traveled to Ukraine in 2022 to recruit ex-Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban to fight for the embattled nation. Neighbors in Hawaii say he would spend months at a time in the country in 2022. In February 2023 Routh self-published a book titled “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War” where he first introduces the notion of a Trump assassination.

Routh frequently posted on social media about the war in Ukraine and had a website where he sought to raise money and recruit volunteers to go to Kyiv to join the fight against the Russian invasion.

In an interview with Newsweek Romania, Routh explained his support for Ukraine.

“A lot of other conflicts are gray, but this conflict is definitely black and white.This is about good versus evil,” Routh said. “We’re battling a situation here where the Ukrainians and the rest of the world are caring and kind and generous and unselfish and and take care of one another, and it’s just a matter of — we need to stand up for that.”

However, the International Legion of Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, part of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate under the Ministry of Defense, said Routh had no relation to the unit, NewsNation partner The Hill reports.

“American citizen Ryan Routh has never served in the International Legion of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, has no relation to the unit. Rumors disseminated in certain media are not true,” the group said in a statement.

In addition, Routh said in an interview with Semafor published in March 2023 that Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense had rejected his attempts to get visas for Afghans to fight in Ukraine.

Greensboro neighbor describes Ryan Routh

A woman who lived next door to Routh in Greensboro spoke to NewsNation affiliate WGHP on the condition of anonymity. She said she has known Routh for nearly two decades.

The neighbor described Routh as unusual but said she could have never expected him to be involved in something like this.

“Him, I mean, trying to shoot Trump. That’s a lot. I would have never guessed, and I would have swore up and down, no, that’s not him,” she said. “I just can’t believe it. I mean, if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I mean the pictures and stuff and all, then I wouldn’t be able to believe that.”

The neighbor said she wasn’t surprised to hear about guns being involved. She claims to have seen guns in Routh’s home over the years.

“I’ve seen the guns myself and all, and, yeah, they had a lot of guns and stuff over there, and, yeah, a lot of people were afraid of him back in the day,” she said.

She said she last spoke to him in May, just before he moved to Hawaii. At the time, she remembers that everything seemed normal.

“He told me it was the last day he was here and he hugged me goodbye, and, yeah, he actually hugged me,” she said.

The neighbor says Routh gave her a shirt from Hawaii as a gift on that last day and hired her son to help with his move.

“I thought he was just living the life in Hawaii with the girlfriend and all, so for him to be (trying to) assassinat(e) the president, that’s just crazy,” she said.

NewsNation affiliate WGHP’s Emily Mikkelsen , Elijah Skipper , Justyn Melrose and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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