Suspected Trump golf course shooter has long criminal record in North Carolina

The man arrested Sunday in connection with an alleged assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was a longtime Greensboro resident with a lengthy criminal history.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested after a Secret Service agent spotted and shot an armed person on the edge of Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course where the former president was playing.

In a news conference, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said a witness saw a man flee the scene after the shooting and took photos of the man’s black Nissan SUV, including the license plate. Routh was arrested several miles away after his truck was identified.

At the location where the suspect was seen on the golf course, police officers found an AK-47 rifle, two backpacks and a GoPro camera.

Routh is an avid supporter of Ukraine in the war against Russia and once traveled there. There he told an interviewer from Newsweek Romania that the Ukrainian military would not accept him into the army due to his age and lack of military experience. He also said that he had recently moved to Hawaii.

In an interview with the New York Times in Ukraine, he said he was a construction contractor.

In several social media posts, Routh wrote about the importance of supporting Ukraine and posted that he was trying to help Afghan special forces veterans join the Ukrainian military.

State records show he had multiple prior convictions in North Carolina, including possession of stolen goods, carrying a concealed weapon, hit-and-run and – in 2002 – possession of a weapon of mass destruction.

According to a report in the Greensboro News & Record this year, Routh barricaded himself in a store for several hours after fleeing an attempted traffic stop. He was in possession of a fully automatic firearm.

Routh was registered as an unaffiliated voter, according to Guilford County records. He participated in the Democratic primary this spring.