The man accused of trying to kill Donald Trump on a golf course in Florida had more than 100 interactions with police near his old home in North Carolina, according to a former officer.
Ryan Routh, 58, was arrested Sunday afternoon and hit with two federal gun charges. Authorities said he was carrying a rifle and hiding in bushes on the golf course when Secret Service agents spotted him and took him down.
Routh didn’t fire any shots, investigators said.
But cops in Routh’s hometown of Greensboro, N.C., had seen the man dozens of times, according to local Fox affiliate WGHP.
“His license was suspended. He allowed all of his employees to drive without licenses, had no insurance on any of his vehicles, and everyone in the Greensboro Police Department knew it,” former Greensboro officer Eric Rasecke told WGHP.
“It’s almost like blatantly saying, ‘Here I am,’” Rasecke continued. “He would be constantly pulled over for those traffic violations.”
Routh, who owned a roofing business in the state, also had two felony convictions in North Carolina, including one in 2002 for possessing a fully automatic machine gun, according to court records. In that incident, Routh ran from a traffic stop and holed up at his business for hours before surrendering peacefully, police said.
In the Trump assassination attempt, Routh was arrested with an “AK-47-style” rifle, according to authorities. He was charged with being a felon in possession of a weapon.
Rasecke said none of his interactions with Routh were violent, though the 2002 incident threatened to turn for worse.
“He runs up into the business. Law enforcement the only thing they can do at that time is think about protecting themselves and the general public, so they locked down the area, closed off the roadways, called in the negotiation teams,” Rasecke told WGHP.
AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
Ryan Wesley Routh, pictured in 2022, was arrested after US Secret Service agents “opened fire on a gunman” carrying an AK-47 style rifle near Donald Trump’s Florida golf course on Sunday. (Photo by AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2012, Routh earned another felony conviction for possessing stolen goods. In 2018, he moved to Hawaii, though he kept his home in North Carolina and voted in-person in March 2024 in the state’s Democratic primary.
Routh was registered in the state as an unaffiliated voter, meaning he could vote in the primary of his choice. He claimed on social media and in a book that he once voted for Trump, but North Carolina state voting records don’t show him participating in the 2016 or 2020 elections.