An undated selfie shows Ryan W. Routh, a suspect identified by news organizations, as the FBI investigates what it called an attempted assassination in Florida of Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump. | Photo Credit: via Reuters

A gunman attempted to assassinate former U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday (Sept. 15, 2024) at Trump’s golf course in Palm Beach, Florida, authorities said. Multiple news organizations identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, citing unidentified law enforcement officials. The FBI declined to comment.

Here’s what we know so far about the suspected shooter:

Gun barrel in bushes

According to the Secret Service, its agents were accompanying Trump onto the golf course when one of them securing the holes for the Republican presidential candidate spotted a gun barrel in some bushes near the property line.

Multiple officers confronted the gunman, firing at least four rounds into him. The gunman then dropped his AK-47-style rifle, two backpacks, a Go Pro camera and other belongings and fled in a black Nissan vehicle.

According to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, a witness was able to take a photo of the suspect’s car and license plate number and provide it to authorities.

Shortly thereafter, sheriff’s deputies from neighboring Martin County stopped the suspect on Interstate 95 and took him into custody.

News about Ukraine, democracy

Reuters found profiles on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn of a Ryan Routh, and public access to the Facebook and X profiles was removed several hours after the shooting.

The three reports in which Routh bears his name suggest that he was a fervent supporter of Ukraine in the war against Russia.

On April 21, Routh sent an X message to Elon Musk, writing, “I would like to buy a rocket from you. I want to load it with a nuclear warhead for Putin’s bunker in the Black Sea to kill him. Can you give me a price?”

The New York Times reported that it had interviewed Routh in 2023 for an article about Americans who had volunteered to help the war effort in Ukraine. Routh told the Times He had traveled to Ukraine in 2022 and spent several months there, trying to recruit Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine.

In 2020, Routh expressed support for Democratic US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on X and mocked Biden as “sleepy Joe”.

Earlier this year, 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 slave masters again. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we can’t lose.”

The suspected shooter’s son, Adam, was reached by Reuters at the hardware store where he works in Hawaii, said he had not heard of the latest assassination attempt on Trump and had “no information,” adding that he did not expect his father to do this.

Later, the reporter called back to the store and a coworker said that Adam had gone home due to an emergency.

Another son of Routh, Oran, told CNN in a statement saying “I have no comment other than a character profile of him as a loving and caring father… I do not know what happened in Florida and I hope things have just been taken out of context.”