Suspect in apparent Trump assassination attempt has long history of trouble with the law

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The man accused of hiding in the shrubbery of Donald Trump’s Florida golf course in what authorities say was an apparent assassination attempt has a long history of trouble with the law and an obsession with the war in Ukraine that led him to visit the country after Russia’s invasion and publish an e-book last year in which he appeared to invite the killing of the Republican presidential candidate.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, appeared in a West Palm Beach, Fla., courthouse on Monday morning on firearms charges. In July, a 20-year-old gunman was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper at a rally in Pennsylvania after firing multiple shots, grazing Mr. Trump’s ear and hitting three attendees, killing one.

Authorities said Secret Service agents, who were protecting Mr. Trump as he played a round of golf, shot at Mr. Routh after noticing the barrel of a gun extending from the tree line at the course in West Palm Beach, though they said he never fired and did not have a view of the former president before he fled.

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Mr. Routh spent most of his life in Greensboro, N.C., before moving to Hawaii in recent years, where he had a business building tiny houses for the homeless. He has a criminal record in Greensboro dating back more than two decades, including an incident in 2002 in which he barricaded himself inside his roofing business with an automatic weapon.

He has also mounted a self-styled campaign since 2022 in support of the Ukrainian war effort, including running a website aimed at recruiting people to go to Ukraine to fight against the Russian invasion. Mr. Routh travelled to Kyiv two years ago, where he has said he unsuccessfully tried to volunteer for the front lines himself and then sought to recruit soldiers from other countries.

Last year, he mentioned the potential assassination of Mr. Trump in a rambling, self-published e-book titled Ukraine’s Unwinnable War. Mr. Trump is only mentioned nine times in his e-book’s 290 pages, but Mr. Routh calls him a “buffoon” and “fool” and “brainless.”

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In one passage, discussing Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, Mr. Routh acknowledges supporting Mr. Trump in 2016: “I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologize. You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal.”

His efforts to support Ukraine appeared to include a 2022 appeal on the fundraising site GoFundMe, posted by a woman identifying herself as Kathleen Shaffer who said that her fiancé, Ryan – the post did not include his last name but features a picture of him – had “put his life at home on hold” to go to Kyiv “to support the people of Ukraine.” The post said the campaign had raised $1,865 and that Mr. Routh had “been able to set up an international volunteer center to help connect global citizens with military groups,” although Ukrainian officials have disavowed him.

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Mr. Routh was arrested on Sunday by the side of Florida’s I-95 highway, about 70 kilometres away from Mr. Trump’s golf course. In body-camera footage released by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, he complies with shouted orders from the heavily armed officers who had stopped his vehicle. A photograph of Mr. Routh released by police shows a slender man with blond hair wearing a pink long-sleeved T-shirt.

In a text to CNN, Mr. Routh’s son, Oran Routh, called him a “loving and caring father, and honest, hardworking man” who he did not believe would do “anything crazy, much less violent.” The son said he did not know what had happened and that he hoped things had just been “blown out of proportion.”

A LinkedIn profile in Mr. Routh’s name says he has owned an Oahu company called Camp Box since 2018. The company’s website says it builds economical shelters, in part as a way to end homelessness.

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In the community of Ka’a’awa on Oahu, one resident said Mr. Routh and his partner had moved into a two-storey house neighbouring theirs about five years ago. Outside the house identified as Mr. Routh’s residence, an American flag stood on the porch and there was a parked white pickup truck loaded with lumber. It bore a Biden-Harris bumper sticker and a Camp Box logo.

The neighbour, Kamalani Smith, said she had an incident with Mr. Routh in late June when he became angry with her dog’s barking, entered her yard without permission and “shot my dog with a water hose.”

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“He wasn’t really the best neighbour, because even when we went to talk to him about it, he was very oblivious, thinking that it was okay that he could come into my yard and do that,” she told The Globe and Mail.

Ms. Smith and her girlfriend, Naiya Aipia, said Mr. Routh left Hawaii two weeks ago but his partner, whom they described as nice, remained there.

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Ms. Aipia’s aunt, Lehua Mark, who lives on the same street as Mr. Routh’s house, said she is a friend of the family and was shocked when she learned he is the suspect.

“He was cool, never bothered anyone but the dog. He never likes dogs,” Ms. Mark said.

She said she occasionally came over to his yard to drink beer, play music and chat with the couple, mainly Mr. Routh’s partner. She said of Mr. Routh: “He was quiet. He talks but never really got into our conversation.”

Ms. Mark said she and Mr. Routh talked about how to protect their land from being taken away by tourists but otherwise nothing political. She knew Mr. Routh was supporting Joe Biden but had no idea he was recruiting people to fight in Ukraine.

“That was the weirdest part. I never, ever heard him say anything about Ukraine.”

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Court records in North Carolina show Mr. Routh faced a raft of criminal charges over the years, including weapons charges, resisting a public officer, fraud, larceny, writing bad cheques and possession of stolen vehicles.

In December, 2002, the Greensboro News and Record reported that Mr. Routh, then 36, barricaded himself in the offices of his roofing company with a machine-gun in a three-hour overnight standoff with police. Mr. Routh pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered fully automatic gun, which is defined in North Carolina law as a weapon of mass destruction, according to the county district attorney’s office and the Guilford County Superior Court’s clerk office. He was sentenced to probation, the county district attorney’s office said.

According to public notices in North Carolina local media, a 1998 marriage ended in divorce in 2003.

Jeffrey Veltri, FBI special agent in charge of the Miami field office, told reporters at a press conference on Monday that Mr. Routh was also the subject of a previously closed 2019 tip to the FBI where it was alleged he was a felon in possession of a firearm, but the complainant did not verify the initial information. He said agents have interviewed seven civilian witnesses, several family members, friends and former colleagues. Mr. Veltri said the investigation was continuing but that law enforcement had no information to believe Mr. Routh had accomplices.

With reports from Adrian Morrow, Laura Stone, Stephanie Chambers, Reuters and Associated Press