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 club is a former roofer whose criminal history includes barricading himself with a weapon at the company’s facility in North Carolina more than two decades ago.
Law enforcement sources told the Miami Herald on Sunday evening that the man in custody is 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh. Around 1 p.m., deputies and agents found an AK-47 with a scope as well as two backpacks and a GoPro in bushes just outside Trump International Golf Club 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 grazed by a bullet in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania. Routh, sources say, is facing federal charges after he was detained along Interstate 95.
What we know about the alleged attempted assassin:
Ryan Routh isn’t from Florida
It doesn’t appear that Routh has 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, in which he used his construction experience to “build simple economical structures to help address the highest homelessness rate in the United States due to unparalleled gentrification,” according to his LinkedIn profile.
He’s an unaffiliated voter
Routh remains listed an active unaffiliated voter in North Carolina, according The News & Observer, a McClatchy publication in North Carolina.
READ MORE: NC man held after attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump
As unaffiliated voters can choose which primary they want to vote in the state, Routh voted in the Democratic primary when he cast a ballot this spring.
Was he a Trump supporter?
Routh, according to the New York Post and archives of his X account, said he voted for Trump in 2016.
“I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving; are you retarded; I will be glad when you gone,” Routh posted.
Previous run-ins with the law
In 2010, Routh was sentenced to prison time on three counts of felony possession of stolen goods and probation for one misdemeanor count of the same crime, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction website.
A Dec. 16, 2002 story in The News & Record, a newspaper in Greensboro, North Carolina, reported that Routh was arrested after driving from a 10 p.m. traffic stop and barricading himself with a fully automatic machine gun inside United Roofing, where public records say Routh worked. He would be arrested three hours later.
Misdemeanor charges of carrying a concealed weapon, driving with a revoked driver’s license and resisting an officer were combined during his sentencing with other charges levied against him from 2001 and 2002: five other counts of driving with a revoked license; two other counts of carrying a concealed weapon; misdemeanor hit and run; and other “miscellaneous motor vehicle violations.”
Did he volunteer to fight in Ukraine war?
In 2023, Routh told the New York Times he spent several months in Ukraine amid the war with Russia. He also said he had tried recruiting Afghan soldiers who opposed the Taliban to fight in Ukraine.
Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report
