Who is the suspect in the apparent Trump assassination attempt?
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The three accounts bearing Mr Ryan Wesley Routh's name suggest he was an avid supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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The suspect who apparently tried to kill Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
Federal prosecutors on Sept 16 filed two gun-related charges against him, in what is likely a preliminary move to allow the authorities to keep him in custody while additional charges are brought.
CNN, Fox News and The New York Times had earlier cited unidentified law enforcement officials in their identification of Routh, 58, from Hawaii.
Here is what we know so far about the suspect:
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.
Agents engaged the gunman and fired at least four rounds at him. The gunman then dropped his AK-47-style rifle, two backpacks, a Go Pro camera and other items, and fled in a black Nissan car.
Palm Beach County’s Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said a witness managed to take a photo of the suspected gunman’s car and licence plate and gave it to the authorities.
Shortly after, sheriff’s deputies in neighbouring 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 billionaire Elon Musk, in which he wrote: “I would like to buy a rocket from you. I wish to load it with a warhead for Putin’s Black Sea mansion bunker to end him. Can you give me a price please.”
The Times reported that 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 had travelled to Ukraine and spent several months there in 2022 and was trying to recruit Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine.
On X in 2020, Routh expressed support for Democratic US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders and mocked Mr Joe Biden, now president, as “sleepy Joe”.
In 2024, Routh tagged Mr Biden in a post on X: “Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trump’s should be MASA... make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”
Routh’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 to the store and a colleague said Adam had gone home because of an emergency.
Another son of Routh’s, Oran, told CNN 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”. REUTERS
