A suspected gunman is now in custody after Secret Service agents foiled what appears to be 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.
He 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 1.30 pm, Secret Service agents had spotted the butt of the gun through the fence and fired shots toward Routh.
It is not clear if the accused gunman opened fire.
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 by 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 standoff. 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 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.
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 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, who was detained on Sunday, said he went to Ukraine after the Russian invasion and that he aimed to get Afghan soldiers to fight in the war.
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.
He also spoke to Semafor on March 7 last year, complaining that the Ukrainian government, which he had traveled around the world to find backing for, was restricting the access of some foreign soldiers without the proper credentials.
“Ukraine is very often hard to work with. Many foreign soldiers leave after a week in Ukraine or must move from unit to unit to find a place they are respected and appreciated,” he told the outlet at the time.
“They’re afraid that anybody and everybody is a Russian spy,” he added.
“I am in Washington DC now to try and get some leadership here to help push the Ukrainians to take these soldiers,” he told Semafor. “It all hinges on the US partners here encouraging Ukraine to use these men or us merely convincing them to use them.”
On Sunday, 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 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 also remains unclear but the FBI is treating it as an “attempted assassination,” the bureau said in a statement.
When he fled, Routh 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 aimed to use to film the incident, authorities said.
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 a 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 competency of security details protecting the former president and other political figures.