Retired NC officer recalls past arrest of suspect in Trump assassination attempt

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WNCN) — Body camera video from the sheriff’s office in Martin County, Florida shows the Sunday afternoon arrest of Ryan Wesley Routh a short time after investigators say he was found pointing a high-powered rifle at the course where former president Trump was playing golf, apparently attempting to assassinate the Republican presidential nominee.

When retired Greensboro police officer Tracy Fulk heard Routh as the name of the suspect, she recognized it as someone she’d arrested more than 20 years ago.

“I happened to see him see him driving down the road, and I knew he didn’t have a driver’s license,” she said of the 2002 arrest. “I got up towards the driver’s door, he reached to the center and opened a duffel bag, exposing a gun.”

She said Routh then barricaded himself in a business for a couple of hours. Court records show he was charged with carrying a concealed gun in December 2002.

It’s one of numerous charges he’s faced in North Carolina, including traffic-related charges, possession of stolen goods, and possessing a weapon of mass destruction in 2002.

Fulk says at the time, police considered him dangerous.

“They deemed him a threat to law enforcement, and just put out information saying, ‘Hey, if you deal with this guy, just be aware he usually has weapons and he may have explosives,'” she recalls.

Two decades later, social media shows Routh spent time in Ukraine and wrote a book, in which he was critical of former president Trump, but investigators have not released any motive for Sunday’s incident.

Investigators say Routh was hiding in the treeline of the former president’s West Palm Beach golf club, when a Secret Service agent noticed a gun poking out of the bushes. That agent opened fire.

“Certainly, the agent did a great job by getting rid of the threat right away,” said Denny Schlindwein, a retired Secret Service agent, who lives in Clayton. “Had he not seen that, then Lord knows the guy would have probably got off a shot.”

Routh got away but was captured a short time later on Interstate 95.

Although law enfocement caught up with Routh, this is the second apparent assassination attempt in a matter of months, and Schlindwein says he’s concerned things could get even more dangerous before election day.

“Once it happens, copycats are going to enjoy the fact that somebody got a lot of publicity and maybe they’d like to have publicity in their life,” he said.

Going forward, Schlindwein says he would like to see more agents surround the former president. He also believes in situations like this, a Counter Assault Team should accompany him, especially in ourdoor situations.

That team is made up of agents with high powered guns, who are trained to take down a threat from a long distance.

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