Sep 16 \u2013 Ryan Wesley Routh has been identified by US media as a suspect following the apparent assassination attempt on US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Florida.<\/p>\n
Mr Routh, 58, is from North Carolina originally and spent most of his life there, according to property records, but has most recently lived in Hawaii.<\/p>\n
His known activity paints a mixed picture of his politics, and he appears to have felt strongly about Ukraine\u2019s war effort. He has also had a number of legal issues.<\/p>\n
Here are some of the other things we know about him.<\/p>\n
What did Mr Routh do?<\/p>\n
He is suspected of going to the Trump International Golf Course in Florida on Sunday, armed with an AK-47-style rifle. The FBI recovered the weapon and scope, two backpacks and a GoPro camera from the bush where the suspect hid.<\/p>\n
Although Routh managed to escape in his car, he appears to have been spotted by a witness who took a photo of the black Nissan he was driving.<\/p>\n
An urgent alert was put out for the car. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said two officers picked up Mr Routh\u2019s vehicle 45 minutes after the gun was spotted at the golf course, and followed it.<\/p>\n
He was eventually stopped on Interstate 95 and taken into custody.<\/p>\n
BBC Verify has found social media profiles matching Mr Routh\u2019s name. They indicate that he called for foreign fighters to go to Ukraine to battle against Russian forces.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am coming to Ukraine from Hawaii to fight for your kids and families and democracy.. I will come and die for you,\u201d a post on X reads, according to the BBC\u2019s US partner, CBS News.<\/p>\n
There are also pro-Palestinian, pro-Taiwan and anti-China messages on his profile, including allegations about Chinese \u201cbiological warfare\u201d and references to the Covid-19 virus as an \u201cattack\u201d.<\/p>\n
CBS reported that Mr Routh supported President Trump at one point, writing in a post on X that the Republican was \u201cmy choice in 2016\u201d, but that he was \u201cgetting worse and devolving\u201d and continuing: \u201cI will be glad when you [are] gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Routh has also been seen online urging President Joe Biden and Vice-President Harris to meet victims of a shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, when another attempt was made on Trump\u2019s life in July.<\/p>\n
Ryan Routh, in a photo released by Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/p>\n
Mr Routh told the New York Times in 2023 that he wanted to assist the war effort in Ukraine, and was seeking to recruit Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban.<\/p>\n
In a telephone interview with the paper, he said dozens of soldiers were interested and that he planned to move them from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine, in some cases illegally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it\u2019s such a corrupt country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Routh also told the newspaper at the time that he was in Washington to meet with the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe to help push for more support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Routh appears to have been engaged in recruitment efforts as recently as July.<\/p>\n
One Facebook post from July read in part: \u201cSoldiers, please do not call me. We are still trying to get Ukraine to accept Afghan soldiers and hope to have some answers in the coming months\u2026 please have patience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s International Legion of foreign volunteers has denied having any links, and other Ukrainian officials have distanced themselves from him. President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned political violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying with fire has its consequences,\u201d said Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in comments quoted by the Reuters news agency.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sep 16 \u2013 Ryan Wesley Routh has been identified by US media as a suspect following the apparent assassination attempt on US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Florida. Mr Routh, 58, is from North Carolina originally and spent most of his life there, according to property records, but has most recently lived in Hawaii. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}