Who Is Ryan Routh? Ukraine-Supporter Arrested For Second Assassination Attempt

By Fnf correspondent | PUBLISHED: 16, Sep 2024, 15:59 pm IST | UPDATED: 17, Sep 2024, 18:54 pm IST

New Delhi: Former UP President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump narrowly escaped on Sunday in Florida, according to the FBI. Gunshots were reported near Trump’s vicinity when he was on course at his Golf Club. Following the incident the US Secret Services have arrested a 58-year-old suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh and seized a high-powered AK-47 style rifle and a GoPro camera from the scene.

When Secret Service agents started shooting, Routh apparently ran out from the bushes where he was hiding and got away in a black car. The police found the car with witnesses who pointed it out to them and arrested the suspect.

According to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s statement cited by AP, after an agent fired, the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, abandoning the firearm along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming, and a GoPro camera.

Routh is a former construction worker from North Carolina Greesboro, reported the New York Times. Routh lacks any formal military experience, had previously expressed a strong interest in joining armed conflicts, particularly in Ukraine following Russia's 2022 invasion. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he stated his readiness to "fight and die" in Ukraine. Routh also urged civilians to be active in changing global conflicts.

A screengrab of his earlier tweet over Donald Trump is doing round on ‘X’, in which he called the former president ‘retarded.

@realDonaldTrump While you were my choice in 2106, 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,” he posted in November 2020.

"I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE," Routh wrote.

In his WhatsApp bio too, he has written similar texts, "Each one of us must do our part daily in the smallest steps help support human rights, freedom and democracy; we each must help the Chinese," his bio reads.

Apart from these social sites declarations, he gave an interview to The New York Times wherein he claimed to have travelled to Ukraine to recruit Afghan soldiers in a bid to support war efforts.

As of his history with the police, Routh was arrested in 2002 for barricading himself inside a building with a fully automatic weapon in Greensboro. The charges were serious, but the case's outcome is still uncertain.

The US Secret Service detained an individual after multiple gunshots were fired near former President Donald Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The incident occurred shortly before 2 p.m. on Sunday while Republican presidential candidate was on the course, according to the Secret Service.

Kamala Harris have been briefed on the security incident involving former President Donald Trump while he was golfing earlier on Sunday. According to CNN, both leaders expressed relief that Trump is safe.

The incident is notably concerning as around two months ago, former President Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania, where a bullet grazed his ear.