On Sunday evening, the Palm Beach County police reported that United States Secret Service agents shot a man who was aiming an AK-type rifle with a telescopic sight at Donald Trump’s golf club while the Republican presidential candidate was on the course.
The individual, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, also had two backpacks hanging on a fence and a GoPro camera, and was about 365 to 450 meters (400 to 500 yards) away from Trump and hidden among bushes while the former president was playing golf on a nearby hole.
Wesley dropped the weapon and fled in an SUV. Later, she was arrested in a neighboring county.
Who is the person who allegedly wanted to attack Trump?
Unlike Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who shot at Trump on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, Wesley Routh, 58, has an extensive criminal record, with several arrests for various reasons, including one in North Carolina in 2002 for possession of a "weapon of mass destruction" (a fully automatic machine gun).
Routh is originally from Hawaii but also spent a good part of his time in North Carolina, where he worked as a constructor and was the owner of the company Camp Box Honolulu.
According to US media, what stands out most about Ryan Wesley Routh is his defense of Ukraine against the Russian invasion that began in 2022, even expressing his desire to fight and die there, in addition to rallying civilians for the war.
In an interview with the New York Times, Routh said that although he had no military experience, he wanted to recruit Afghan soldiers who had fled from the Taliban to fight in Ukraine and that he had traveled to that country after the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin.
According to The Associated Press, in April 2022, Ryan Wesley Routh was filmed at a demonstration in Independence Square in Kiev, two months after Russia invaded Ukraine, holding a sign that read: "We cannot tolerate corruption and evil for another 50 years or more. End Russia for our children." He was wearing a blue vest with the American flag on the back.
In any case, the individual has never served in the Ukrainian army or collaborated with the army in any way, according to Oleksandr Shahuri, representative of the Foreign Coordination Department of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Command.
Other crimes in Routh's extensive criminal record include carrying a concealed weapon, resisting arrest by a police officer, driving with a revoked license, possession of stolen property, and fleeing in a motor vehicle.
What was Ryan Wesley Routh's political position?
According to his posts on social network X, Routh apparently voted for Donald Trump in 2016, but later declared himself disappointed with his presidency. "The world and I were hoping that President Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we are very disappointed and it's getting worse. I will be happy when you leave," he wrote.
According to the New York Post, since 2019 the individual has donated to several Democratic Party campaigns.