GREENSBORO, North Carolina — The alleged gunman who authorities say tried to kill former President Donald Trump was arrested with a bomb — a “weapon of mass destruction” — following a tense police standoff in 2002, according to authorities.
It’s just one incident in a long history of dangerous and unsettling behavior recounted by cops and neighbors in his hometown.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was charged with possessing a weapon of mass destruction after Greensboro, North Carolina, police arrested him during a traffic stop that escalated dramatically when he barricaded himself in the office of his roofing business.
Tracy Fulk, the now-retired Greensboro cop who arrested Routh back then, told The Post the man was on cops’ radar when she spotted him driving with a revoked license and pulled him over.
“When I got just about to the driver’s door, I saw him reach into the center of the car — so of course I shined my flashlight and looked and he opened a duffel back and there was a gun in it,” Fulk recalled.
“He never picked it up. He just kind of held his hand over the duffel bag, so I backed up and I issued commands, and he just decided to put it in drive and he drove,” she added.
Routh, who drove to his offices and barricaded himself from police, was also in possession of a binary explosive fitted with a 10-inch detonation cord and a blasting cap — the components of an explosive device, according to Greensboro police.
Fulk said she was wary of the man, so she called for backup while taking cover behind her vehicle.
“I think we were out there a couple hours, but it seemed like forever,” the former officer said. “I could see him inside pacing back and forth and every once in a while he would look out the window.
“But he never pointed a gun at anybody that night,” she added. “Once they got him to surrender, that was it.”
Fulk said she was shocked to learn that the man she encountered all those years ago was the same man accused of attempting to shoot Trump on Sunday while he was playing golf in his Florida course.
Although the former cop described Routh as “polite” during his arrest, she said the charges he faces now make a certain amount of sense.
“At first I was surprised but then, after I started remembering all the barometer reports and the incidents that other officers had with him,” she said, “I guess it’s kind of along his personality.”
Here’s what we know about the assassination attempt on Trump in Florida:
- Former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15, 2024.
- Trump sent out a statement to supporters soon after to report that he was “SAFE AND WELL.”
- The suspect — identified as Ryan Routh, 58, of Hawaii — was able to get within 300 to 500 yards of Trump at a chain link fence on the edge of the course, where he had an AK-47 and a GoPro camera set up, apparently to record the planned shooting.
- Routh has a history of supporting progressive causes online and has made 19 donations to Democratic candidates since 2019.
- A Secret Service agent spotted and opened fire on Routh as he put his gun through the fence. The suspect fled and was arrested on I-95 a short time later.
- According to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Trump’s security detail was lighter because he isn’t a sitting president — despite the previous attempt on his life in July.
Fulk’s comment came after one of Routh’s neighbors, Josh Patrick, 30, told The Post of the multiple, unsettling run-ins he had with Routh back in March.
Patrick described Routh as a “high-risk person,” claiming “there were warning signs” and “red flags” that he would eventually attack someone.
David Atkinson, a former employee who worked at Routh’s United Roofing company, said he too was surprised by Sunday’s arrest since he knew his former boss as a good, family man.
“For Ryan to do something to this, something triggered him or he was provoked, because I’m telling you personally, from my experience – and know a lot of people who have worked for the same man, and they would tell you the same thing – that Ryan Routh is not like this,” said Atkinson, a registered sex offender.
Follow the latest on the foiled assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Florida:
- Trump ‘safe and well’ after being targeted by would-be assassin with AK-47 assault rifle for second time in 2 months
- Shots fired near Trump live updates: Would-be shooter was 300-500 yards away, came with scope and GoPro — ‘Intent on filming’
- Who is alleged would-be Trump assassin Ryan Wesley Routh?
- Trump assures he’s ‘SAFE AND WELL’ after Secret Service fires at man armed with assault rifle at president’s golf resort
- Trump’s security at golf course was lighter because he’s not sitting prez: official
- Demands mount for Trump to get same protection as Biden — after yet another assassination plot
The ex-employee, however, conceded that Routh was always vocal about his opinions and that “he’s not scared of nobody.”
Atkinson echoed words from another former employee, Tina Cooper, 58, who said her ex-boss had a knack for doing “stupid s—,” as she recalled the 2002 standoff.
“He had a standoff here, and I don’t know what he was thinking then, either,” Cooper told the UK outlet. “All I know is that I got woken up one morning with the news that he had got arrested and the guys needed work orders, so I went and got the work orders.
“[Routh] had threatened to blow up the entire Greensboro Police Department, that was all documented in the police reports,” she added.