The suspected gunman, arrested Sunday in Florida after his assassination attempt on former Republican President Donald Trump was foiled by the U.S. Secret Service, has been identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh.
Routh, who was apprehended on I-95 after fleeing his sniper post alongside a chain link fence surrounding the Palm Beach golf course, was described by law enforcement as living in Hawaii.
Online records suggest Routh most recently maintained a residence on Kamehameha Highway in Kaaawa, HI.
Although Routh had previously tweeted about having supported former President Trump in 2016, Routh’s social media is filled with anti-Trump rants.
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Routh began donating exclusively to Democrats via ActBlue in Sept. of 2019.
Routh’s LinkedIn account — festooned with Ukrainian flags — indicates that he is self-employed as the owner of Camp Box Honolulu, a company that sells so-called “tiny homes” to residents of the island.
An online background check service revealed that Routh had an extensive previous criminal record in North Carolina.
Although those records were not immediately available, the name and age from the records match a Ryan Routh who was reported by North Carolina media to have engaged in an armed standoff with police in 2002.
Facebook parent company Meta quickly scrubbed Routh’s profile from the social media site; however, screenshots taken before the profile was hidden circulated on X.com.
Screenshots available of Routh’s social media accounts indicate that he was a supporter of Trump in 2016 who had become alienated from the Republicans prior to the 2020 election.
More recently, Routh appears to have become obsessed with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. One 2022 post even indicates that Routh traveled to Kyiv as part of an attempt to recruit foreign nationals to help defend Ukraine.
Routh’s extensive foreign travel, including his documented presence in Ukraine within the last two years, immediately raised questions as to whether he’d had any prior interactions with intelligence agencies — foreign or domestic.
Routh’s attempt to assassinate Trump comes just 64 days after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks nearly killed the Republican presidential nominee at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
Crooks fired several shots from the top of a nearby building, striking the former president in the ear, wounding a rally participant, and killing another.
Unlike Routh, Crooks left behind almost no social media history, and the investigation into his attempt on Trump’s life has produced little information, stoking considerable controversy and fostering conspiracy theories.
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