What we know about the reported suspect behind apparent Trump assassination attempt

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By Brad Brooks, Alexandra Ulmer

(Reuters) -A gunman attempted to assassinate Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sunday at Trump’s golf course in Palm Beach, Florida, authorities said. 

CNN, Fox News and The New York Times identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, citing unidentified law enforcement officials. The FBI declined to comment and Reuters could not independently verify his identity.

Here is what we know so far about the suspected gunman: 

GUN BARREL IN BUSHES

The Secret Service said its agents were accompanying Trump on the golf course, when one who was securing holes ahead of Trump spotted a gun barrel in some bushes near the property line. 

Multiple agents engaged the gunman and fired at least four rounds at him. The gunman then dropped his AK-47 style rifle, two backpacks, a GoPro camera and other items and fled in a black Nissan car. 

Palm Beach County sheriff Ric Bradshaw said a witness managed to take a photo of the suspected gunman’s car and license plate and gave it to authorities. 

Shortly after, sheriff’s deputies in neighboring Martin County stopped the suspect on Interstate 95 and took him into custody. 

POSTS ON UKRAINE, DEMOCRACY

Reuters found profiles on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn for a Ryan Routh, and public access to the Facebook and X profiles was removed hours after the shooting.

The three accounts bearing Routh’s name suggest he was an avid supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia. 

On April 21, Routh directed an X message to Elon Musk, in which he wrote: “I would like to buy a rocket from you. I wish to load it with a warhead for Putins Black sea mansion bunker to end him. Can you give me a price please.” 

The New York Times reported it had interviewed Routh in 2023 for an article about Americans who were volunteering to help the Ukraine war effort. Routh told the Times he’d traveled to Ukraine and spent several months there in 2022 and was trying to recruit Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine.

“A lot of the other conflicts are grey but this conflict is definitely black and white. This is about good versus evil,” Routh said in an interview posted by Newsweek Romania in June 2022. His comments suggested he was in Kyiv at the time.

Routh said he had initially planned to go to Ukraine to fight, but was not accepted due to his age and lack of military experience.

The International Legion, where many foreign fighters in Ukraine serve, said it had no links with Routh.

On X in 2020, Routh expressed support for Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and mocked Biden as “sleepy Joe.” 

Earlier this year, Routh tagged Biden in a post on X: “@POTUS Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA …make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”

‘LOVING AND CARING FATHER’

The suspected gunman’s son, Adam, reached by Reuters at the hardware store where he works in Hawaii, said he had not yet heard of the newest Trump assassination attempt and had “no information,” adding it was not something he believed his father would do.

Later, the reporter called back and a colleague said Adam had gone home because of an emergency.

Another son of Routh’s, Oran, told CNN in a statement that “I don’t have any comment beyond a character profile of him as a loving and caring father … I don’t know what’s happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion.”     

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado and Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco, California; Additional reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Helen Coster in New York; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Sharon Singleton)