Alleged would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh has had several run-ins with law — including conviction of possessing a weapon of mass destruction
Would-be Trump shooting suspect Ryan Routh had repeated run-ins with the law over the years – including a three-hour standoff with police in 2002 in which he was convicted of carrying a “weapon of mass destruction,” according to online records.
Routh, 58, was arrested Sunday after allegedly aiming a gun at former President Donald Trump at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach.
More than two decades before the alleged assassination attempt, the same suspect was arrested during a three-hour standoff in a Greensboro business with authorities, according to a past report.
Routh, then 36, was pulled over during a traffic stop at around 10 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2002, and allegedly put his hand on a firearm and drove to United Roofing – which he owned — where he barricaded himself inside, the Greensboro News and Recorder reported at the time.
Here's what we know about the assassination attempt on Trump in Florida:
- Former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15, 2024.
- Trump sent out a statement to supporters soon after to report that he was “SAFE AND WELL.”
- The suspect — identified as Ryan Routh, 58, of Hawaii — was able to get within 300 to 500 yards of Trump at a chain link fence on the edge of the course, where he had an AK-47 and a GoPro camera set up, apparently to record the planned shooting.
- Routh has a history of supporting progressive causes online and has made 19 donations to Democratic candidates since 2019.
- A Secret Service agent spotted and opened fire on Routh as he put his gun through the fence. The suspect fled and was arrested on I-95 a short time later.
- According to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Trump’s security detail was lighter because he isn’t a sitting president — despite the previous attempt on his life in July.
He was eventually taken into custody around 1 a.m. and charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon of mass destruction, in reference to a fully automatic machine gun he allegedly was carrying, the outlet reported.
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He was convicted of possessing a weapon of mass destruction in 2002, according to online North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records.
Routh has other convictions between 2002 and 2010 for felony possession of stolen goods and misdemeanor charges of carrying a concealed gun, hit and run and resisting law enforcement, the News and Observer reported.
Routh hasn’t been charged yet in his alleged assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump at the Republican’s golf club in Florida.
While Trump was on the golf course, Secret Service agents were stationed a few holes ahead and noticed the muzzle of an AK-47 sticking through bushes along the course a few hundred feet away.
An agent opened fire and Routh fled the scene before he was later captured, authorities said.
Other legal turmoil that Routh found himself in before Sunday’s event included facing a federal tax lien in 2008 of about $32,000, according to court records reported by CNN.
State and federal officials have repeatedly claimed he did not pay his taxes on time, the outlet reported.
With Post wires
