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New York Post
North Carolina neighbor of would-be Trump assassin Ryan Wesley Routh says ‘people were afraid of him’
By Richard Pollina,
10 hours ago
A longtime neighbor of alleged Donald Trump gunman Ryan Wesley Routh in North Carolina has admitted Routh was “a little cuckoo” and “a lot of people were afraid” of him.
“I knew he was a little cuckoo,” the anonymous neighbor, who claimed to have known Routh for nearly two decades when he lived in Greensboro, told Fox 8 Sunday, adding, “He’s going to be going away for a long time.”
The woman, however, was still stunned that the devoted Democrat would target the former president.
Ryan Wesley Routh is in custody after the alleged assassination attempt. X/Ryan_wesleyrouth A sketch of would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh in Florida federal court on Sept. 16, 2024. Lothar Speer Routh was hit with federal gun charges. Lothar Speer
“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,” Routh’s dumbfounded former neighbor 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.”
She claimed to have seen Routh with “a lot of guns,” and that his behavior instilled fear in others around the neighborhood when he was living in the Tar Heel State.
“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 told the outlet.
The awestruck neighbor said she last spoke with Routh before he moved to Hawaii in May.
She claimed that nothing seemed off with him when the alleged would-be assassin left North Carolina.
“He told me it was the last day he was here and he hugged me goodbye, and, yeah, he actually hugged me,” she told the outlet.
Routh even gifted her a shirt from Hawaii and hired her son to help with the move, she shared.
“I thought he was just living the life in Hawaii with the girlfriend and all,” his former neighbor said.
“For him to be assassinating the president, that’s just crazy.”
Routh has a criminal record in North Carolina.
Routh’s LinkedIn page shows he attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University but relocated to Hawaii sometime around 2018.
The 58-year-old accused wannabe assassin has a lengthy criminal record from North Carolina , frequently posted about politics, and exclusively donated to Democratic candidates and causes dating back to 2019.
Somebody with Routh’s same full name and date of birth racked up more than a dozen criminal charges in 2001 and 2002, including for carrying a concealed weapon and a hit and run, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction.
Secret Service and Homeland Security agents check Routh’s former home following the attempt. REUTERS
The alleged gunman also picked up a particularly alarming felony in April 2002 for “possessing a weapon of mass destruction,” records show.
On Sunday, Routh was spotted by Secret Service agents near the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach with a scoped AK-47 rifle.
He had set up a GoPro camera on the fence apparently to record the shooting and built a makeshift sniper’s nest in the hedges at the edge of the golf course, waiting for Trump to come into view.
Ryan Routh is seen near Kyiv’s Independence Square in Ukraine in a resurfaced video. Unknown via Storyful
The Secret Service opened fire on Routh, who fled and was arrested on I-95 by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office a short time later.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the suspect took cover near a chain-link fence between 300 and 500 yards from Trump as he teed off at the fifth hole around 2 p.m. — noting that “with a rifle and scope, like, that is not a long distance.”
The suspect’s motives are not yet known.
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