The suspect in custody for allegedly attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University (NC A&T) and is registered to vote in North Carolina.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating shots fired at 1:30 pm Sunday afternoon at Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, golf course as an “attempted assassination.” Trump reports through social media that he is safe.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, has been reported by the Associate Press to be in custody in connection with the incident. A video surfaced on social media Sunday of Routh identifying himself as being from North Carolina and tearfully describing to Newsweek Romania why he is recruiting fighters to defend Ukraine.
Routh’s LinkedIn account shows employment and business ownership in Hawaii and that he studied mechanical engineering from 1995 to 1998 at NC A&T in Greensboro. According to the North Carolina State Board of Elections’ publicly available database, a Ryan Wesley Routh is registered unaffiliated, but voted in March’s Democratic Party primary. Before 2024, he hadn’t voted in North Carolina since 2012.
In 2023, he also spoke to the New York Times and Semafor news outlets, who identified him as the head of the International Volunteer Center in Ukraine. Routh talked about his effort to recruit Afghan soldiers to fight in Ukraine. In 2002, Routh was arrested after barricading himself in a business during a three-hour armed standoff. The article from the Greensboro News and Record from the incident reports that Routh was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon of mass destruction, referring to a fully automatic rifle in his possession.
In a press briefing Sunday, Martin County, Florida, Sheriff William D. Snyder said the suspect was spotted by Secret Service pointing the barrel of a rifle through the bushes as Trump played golf in West Palm Beach. Police say he was between 300 and 500 yards from the former president when Secret Service agents opened fire on him. The suspect fled in a black Nissan, leaving behind an assault rifle, a Go-Pro camera, and two backpacks. The suspect was ultimately taken into custody by law enforcement along I-95, approximately 45 minutes north of the golf course.
The suspect was reportedly unarmed when he was taken into custody, and Snyder said he “was not displaying a lot of emotions, and didn’t ask what this was about.”
In the Newsweek Romania video of Routh from 2022 he describes his frustration with world support for Ukraine in the war with Russia, saying, “Why world leaders are not sending military is beyond me. We’re gonna have to elect new leaders next round who have a backbone and have the fortitude to say we’re not gonna tolerate this type anywhere.”
The arrest comes just two months after Trump was injured in an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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