Who is the suspect in the apparent Trump assassination attempt?
A gunman attempted to assassinate Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sept 15 at Trump's golf course in Palm Beach, Florida, the authorities said.
CNN, Fox News and The New York Times identified the suspect as Mr Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, citing unidentified law enforcement officials. The Federal Bureau of Intelligence declined to comment, and Reuters could not independently verify his identity.
Here is what we know so far about the suspected gunman:
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.
Multiple 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 Mr Routh's name suggest he was an avid supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia.
On April 21, Mr Routh directed an X message to Mr 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 Mr Routh in 2023 for an article about Americans who were volunteering to help the Ukraine war effort. Mr 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, Mr Routh expressed support for Democratic US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and mocked Mr Biden as “sleepy Joe”.
Earlier in 2024, Mr Routh tagged Mr Biden in a post on X: "POTUS Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA... make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose."
Mr 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 Mr 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
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