Second, the man arrested in connection with what has been described as an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump has been vocal about US support for Ukraine and has a long criminal and civil history, including a conviction for possessing a machine gun.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was taken into custody at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday, three senior law enforcement sources said. In 2002, he was convicted of possession of a weapon of mass destruction, a machine gun, according to court documents.
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In that case, a man named Ryan Routh, 36 at the time, allegedly led authorities on a vehicle chase before he stopped at a roofing company in Greensboro, North Carolina, according to an account from the Greensboro News & Record at the time.
A person named Ryan Routh lived for decades in North Carolina, property records show. Most recently, Ryan Routh lived in the small coastal community of Kaaawa on the east shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Authorities there did not immediately respond to inquiries about possible connections with Routh.
After the 2002 arrest, authorities said they found the suspect in possession of a fully automatic machine gun, according to a Greensboro News & Record report. The arrest coincides with North Carolina criminal records containing Routh’s conviction for possession of a weapon of mass destruction.
The records also include convictions for carrying a concealed weapon, possession of stolen property and fleeing. In those cases, which included felony convictions for misdemeanors such as resisting police and driving while suspended, the defendant received a suspended prison sentence and probation or parole.
In the early 2000s, there is no record of time spent in state prison related to these cases.
Court records show more than 100 criminal charges have been filed against Ryan Routh in North Carolina, most of them in Guilford County, which is behind Greensboro. The exact outcome of each case was not immediately clear Sunday.
Court records for a person named Ryan Routh also show a 2003 divorce and several civil judgments after contractors and individuals sued the umbrella company he helped run.
Routh told the Semafor publication last year that he was the leader of a group called the International Volunteer Center as part of his efforts to support Ukraine’s war against Russia.
Routh spoke of his frustration with Ukraine because of what he said were barriers to letting in foreign fighters, including Afghan commandos who either volunteered or were ready to join the war in Ukraine.
“Ukraine is often difficult to work with,” he told Semafor. “They fear that anyone and everyone is a Russian spy.”
In a 2022 interview with Newsweek, Routh said he was 56 years old and that he was from North Carolina and had flown to Ukraine from Hawaii. He complained about US leadership as it joined Ukraine and demanded more support from the US government for the country.
“This conflict is definitely black and white,” he said. “This is about good and evil.”
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 after Trump was in the White House. Trump has promoted a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election and has refused to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the war against Russia. He has also expressed his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There was no immediate indication that Trump’s stance on Ukraine motivated Routh’s alleged actions on Sunday.
It also appears that while living in Hawaii, Routh made several small contributions to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue, including 19 payments in 2019 and 2020 of between $1 and $25, according to Federal Election Commission records. ActBlue did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Sunday night about the donations.
On Sunday, Palm Beach County State’s Attorney Dave Aronberg told MSNBC that the federal government will take over the prosecution in the West Palm Beach case, and the U.S. Department of Justice is expected to file charges.
He argued that the defendant would not need to open fire for the case to include a charge of attempted murder.
Aronberg said he understood that Routh was “stalking” Trump before Secret Service agents spotted him. Routh had aimed at the agent who shot him, Aronberg said; the exact chronology of events remains unclear.
Routh was “pretty quiet” and “pretty compliant” after the Martin County Sheriff’s Traffic Unit pulled him over on Interstate 95 through one county north of Palm Beach, Aronberg said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
