The 58-year-old man accused of pointing an AK-47 at former President Donald Trump on Sunday afternoon has a prolific arrest 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 pointed through a chain-link fence at a hole in front of where Trump was playing.
Authorities are treating the episode as an apparent assassination attempt on Trump.
A background check on the name given by officials, Ryan Wesley Routh, revealed he currently lives in Hawaii and has faced dozens of run-ins with police, dating back to at least the 1990s.
Routh is a native of North Carolina, where his arrest list includes simple drug possession, driving without a license, expired inspection and operating an uninsured vehicle. Additionally, the Greensboro News & Record reported in 2002 that Routh was arrested after barricading himself in his roofing company office during a three-hour standoff that followed a traffic stop in which he put his hand on a gun before fleeing.
TRUMP SAFE AFTER ‘SHOTS FIRED NEAR HIM,’ CAMPAIGN SAYS
Sheriff’s vehicles are pictured near Trump International Golf Club, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla., after shots were reported fired in the vicinity of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Stephanie Matat)
Routh moved to Hawaii in 2017, records show. He has since started another construction company in Hawaii that builds simple housing structures for homeless people, according to a LinkedIn page that appears to belong to Routh.
“It doesn’t appear to be just any random guy with an AK-47 walking around outside Trump’s club,” one official said after the Sunday afternoon incident.
FILE: President Donald Trump’s motorcade arrives at Trump International Golf Club, Feb. 15, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
News of the incident broke shortly after Trump was safely escorted off the golf course.
A Secret Service member spotted the would-be gunman as Trump was playing on the course’s fifth hole. Authorities say he abandoned an AK-47, a GoPro camera and two backpacks next to a chain-link fence bordering the course’s sixth hole.
Routh fled in a pickup truck after being shot by a Secret Service member, but was soon arrested, authorities said.
The Trump campaign quickly issued a statement saying the 45th president was safe, and Trump followed up with a message to his supporters that he will “never give up.”
Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson confirmed that the Secret Service opened fire after seeing a man raise an AK-47. The suspect fled in a car but was quickly apprehended, according to authorities.
“There were shots fired near my house, but before the rumors start to get out of hand, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND OK!” He wrote in a message that was shared on social media
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“Nothing will stop me. I will never give up!” she continued. “I will always love you for supporting me. Unity. Peace. Let’s make America great again. God bless.”
This is a developing story….
