The man accused of hiding in the bushes with an AK-47 and trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his South Florida golf course is a former roofer whose criminal history includes barricading himself with a gun at the company’s North Carolina facility more than two decades ago.
Law enforcement sources told the Miami Herald Sunday night that the man in custody was Ryan Wesley Routh, 58. Around 1 p.m., officers and agents found an AK-47 with a scope, two backpacks and a GoPro in the bushes just outside. Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
READ MORE: AK-47 found near Trump’s Florida golf course, FBI says incident was ‘assassination attempt’
The shooting comes months after Trump was shot and wounded in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania. Routh is reportedly facing federal charges after being arrested along Interstate 95.
What we know about the alleged assassination:
Ryan Routh is not from Florida
Routh does not appear to have any ties to Florida.
According to public records, Routh is originally from North Carolina. He attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University where, according to his LinkedIn, he studied mechanical engineering.
Since 2018, Routh has lived in Hawaii. On the island, he opened Camp Box Honolulu, where he used his construction experience to “build simple, cost-effective structures to help combat the highest rate of homelessness in the United States due to unprecedented gentrification,” according to his LinkedIn profile.
He is an unaffiliated voter
Routh remains listed as an active unaffiliated voter in North Carolina, according to The News & Observer, a McClatchy publication in North Carolina.
READ MORE: North Carolina man arrested after attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump
While unaffiliated voters can choose which primary they want to vote in the state, Routh voted in the Democratic primary when he cast his ballot this spring.
Was he a Trump supporter?
Routh, according to the New York Post and archives of his account Xsaid he voted for Trump in 2016.
“I and the world hoped that President Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we have all been very disappointed and it seems you are getting worse and worse; are you retarded? I will be glad when you are gone,” Routh posted.
Previous legal disputes
In 2010, Routh was sentenced to prison for three counts of possession of stolen property and probation for a misdemeanor count of the same crime, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections website.
On December 16, 2002, an article in The News & Record, a newspaper in Greensboro, North Carolina, reported that Routh had been arrested after leaving a traffic stop at 10 p.m. and barricading himself with an automatic machine gun inside United Roofing, where public records indicate Routh worked. He would be arrested three hours later.
The charges of carrying a concealed weapon, driving while revoked, and resisting an officer were combined at his sentencing with other charges he faced in 2001 and 2002: five other counts of driving while revoked; two other counts of carrying a concealed weapon; hit and run; and other “various traffic violations.”
Did he volunteer to fight in the war in Ukraine?
In 2023, Routh told the New York Times that he spent several months in Ukraine amid the war with Russia. He also said he tried to recruit Afghan soldiers opposed to the Taliban to fight in Ukraine.
Miami Herald reporter Jay Weaver contributed to this report.
