The 58-year-old man accused of pointing an AK-47 at former President Donald Trump on Sunday afternoon has a long criminal record spanning several decades.
Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested shortly after the incident at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Authorities said Secret Service agents shot him after seeing the muzzle of his AK-47 pointing through a chain-link fence to a hole in front of Trump’s playing field.
Authorities are treating the incident as an apparent assassination attempt on Trump.
A background check on the name provided by officers, Ryan Wesley Routh, revealed that he currently lives in Hawaii and has been in conflict with police dozens of times since at least the 1990s.
Routh is from North Carolina, where he has been arrested for simple drug possession, driving without a license, expired inspection and driving without insurance, among other charges. Additionally, in 2002, the Greensboro News & Record reported that Routh was arrested after barricading himself in the office of his roofing company during a three-hour standoff. The standoff followed a traffic stop during which he placed his hand on a gun before fleeing.
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Ryan Routh is accused of pointing an AK-47 at former President Trump on Sunday as he played golf at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. The incident is being investigated as a second assassination attempt on Trump. (Obtained from Fox News Digital)
Sheriff’s vehicles are seen near the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, after gunshots were reported near Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Stephanie Matat)
Records show Routh moved to Hawaii in 2017. Since then, he has started another construction company there that builds simple housing structures for the homeless, according to a LinkedIn page that appears to belong to Routh.
“It doesn’t look like some guy with an AK-47 is walking around outside Trump’s club,” an official said after the incident on Sunday afternoon.
FILE: President Donald Trump’s motorcade arrives at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, February 15, 2020.
News of the incident came to light shortly after Trump was safely escorted off the golf course.
A member of the Secret Service spotted the suspected shooter as Trump was playing on the course’s fifth hole. Officials said he left an AK-47, a Go-Pro camera and two backpacks on a chain-link fence bordering the course’s sixth hole.
Routh fled in an SUV after a member of the Secret Service shot at him, but was soon arrested, according to authorities.
Trump’s campaign team immediately issued a statement saying that the 45th president was safe. Trump himself sent a message to his supporters saying that he would “never surrender.”
Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson confirmed that the Secret Service opened fire after seeing a man with an AK-47. The suspect fled in a car but was quickly arrested, authorities said.
“There was a shooting near me, but before the rumor mill gets out of control, I want you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND I AM FINE!” he wrote in a message shared on social media.
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“Nothing will stop me. I will NEVER GIVE UP!” he continued. “I will always love you for supporting me. Unity. Peace. Make America Great Again. May God bless you.”
This is a developing story…
