Askume, September 16 –A gunman attempted to assassinate Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Trump golf course in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday , authorities said.
CNN, Fox News and The New York Times, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, identified the suspect as 58-year-old Hawaiian Ryan Wesley Routh. The FBI declined to comment, and Askume was unable to independently verify his identity.
What we know so far about the suspected shooter:
gun barrel in the bushes
The Secret Service said its agents were on a tour of the golf course with Trump when an officer guarding Trump’s front hole discovered a gun barrel in some bushes near the property line.
Several agents negotiated with the gunman and shot him at least four times. The gunman then abandoned his AK-47-style rifle, two backpacks, a GoPro camera and other items and fled in a black Nissan car.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw said a witness managed to take photos of the suspected shooter’s car and license plate and turned them over to authorities.
A short time later, deputies from neighboring Martin County stopped the suspect on Interstate 95 and took him into custody.
Posts about Ukraine and democracy
Askume searched for Ryan Routh’s profiles on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and public access to the Facebook and X profiles was removed a few hours after the shooting.
Three accounts bearing Rouse’s name identify him as UkrainianStrong supporter of the Russian war .
On April 21, Rouse sent a message to Elon Musk to destroy him.”
According to the New York Times, it interviewed Rouse in 2023 and wrote an article about Americans volunteering to help in the war in Ukraine. Rouse told the Times that he traveled to Ukraine in 2022 and stayed there for several months trying to recruit Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine.
“Many other conflicts are ambiguous, but this conflict is definitely black and white. It’s about good and evil,” Rouse said in an interview published by Romanian Newsweek in June 2022. He was in Kiev.
Rouse said he initially planned to travel to Ukraine to fight in the war, but was not accepted due to his age and lack of military experience.
The International Legion, where many foreign fighters serve in Ukraine, said it had no connection to Routh.
In October 2020, Rouse expressed his support for Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and mocked Biden as “Sleepy Joe”.
Earlier this year, Rouse tagged Biden in a post on It’s Mass… which makes Americans slaves masters again.
“A loving and caring father”
The suspected gunman’s son Adam, reached by Askume at the hardware store where he worked in Hawaii, said he had not heard about the latest assassination attempt on Trump and had “no idea”, adding that he believed his father would not do such a thing.
The reporter called again and his colleague said Adam had gone home due to an emergency.
Rouse’s other son, Olan, told CNN in a statement, “I have no comment other than his character qualities as a loving and caring father… I don’t know what happened in Florida. Things, I hope things go smoothly.”
