Former North Carolina neighbor of would be Trump assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh comes forward with her crazed encounters with alleged gunman while another neighbor in Hawaii, offers a more contradictory account amid revelations of prior criminal history and unanswered questions as gunman armed with AK-47 now appears at a Florida Federal court.
A former neighbor of would be Trump assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh who was able to get within 500 yards of the former president at a Florida golf course armed with an AK-47 has shared her previous run-ins with the alleged gunman, saying how her long time next-door was ‘a little cuckoo.’
‘I mean, I didn’t think he would go that far. I knew he was a little cuckoo, but assassinating the president? I mean, he’s going to be going away for a long time,’ the neighbor told Fox 8.
‘a lot of people were afraid of him back in the day’
The woman — who lived next to Routh, 58, for nearly two decades in Greensboro, North Carolina, — claims her former neighbor ‘had a lot of guns’ and that ‘a lot of people were afraid of him back in the day.’
Nevertheless the un-identified neighbor who described Routh as being unusual, admitted she never imagined Routh, a registered Democrat, would try to assassinate the former president.
‘Him, I mean, trying to shoot Trump. That’s a lot. I would have never guessed, and I would have swore up and down, no, that’s not him,’ she told the outlet. ‘… I just can’t believe it. I mean, if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I mean the pictures and stuff and all, then I wouldn’t be able to believe that.’
She said she last spoke to him in May, just before Routh moving to Hawaii. She remembers that at the time, everything seemed normal.
‘He told me it was the last day he was here and he hugged me goodbye, and, yeah, he actually hugged me,’ she told FOX8.
The neighbor says that Routh gave her a shirt from Hawaii as a gift and hired her son to help with his move.
‘Wonderful and never mean spirited…’
‘I thought he was just living the life in Hawaii with the girlfriend and all, so for him to be assassinating the president, that’s just crazy,’ she said.
Another neighbor in Kaawa, Hawaii were Routh had settled after leaving North Carolina offered another encounter telling the Hindustan Times, ‘every interaction we had with him was very welcoming and kind.’
The neighbor, Christopher Tam, went on to express shock and disbelief, saying Routh was ‘wonderful and never mean spirited.’
The alleged assassination attempt, the second in as as many months against Trump, at a West Palm Beach golf course comes amid revelations that Routh having a prior criminal record in North Carolina dating back as far as 2002.
In 2002, Routh barricaded himself inside a business with a gun in Greensboro, per the News & Record.
In 2003, he was sentenced for driving without a license, carrying a concealed weapon and for hit and run. In 2010 he was convicted of possessing stolen goods.
Routh was given probation for all of these charges, according to the DAC website.
At the time of Sunday’s events, Routh is alleged to have been on the Trump-owned golf course with a rifle, a GoPro camera and other items, concealed in bushes in what officials are calling an assassination attempt. The Secret Service fired at the alleged gunman after spotting the muzzle of his AK-47 poking through a fence, but did not hit him, with the would be assassin fleeing the scene in a car. Routh was arrested in a traffic stop on I-95 about 50 miles away.
Of disconcert, is how Routh came to know Trump was playing golf Sunday afternoon – even though it wasn’t on his public schedule.
Routh previously lived in the Greensboro area before moving to Hawaii with his family in May.
Voter records indicate that he was an unaffiliated voter but did vote in the Democratic primary in Guilford County.
Social media posts allegedly belonging to Routh indicate he was a believer in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and he had posted that he had voted for Trump in 2016 but was disappointed with him after the fact, expressing support for Tulsi Gabbard in various posts.
Video also surfaced of Routh also previously saying, ‘This is about good versus evil.’ This is a storybook. You know, any movie we ever watched?’ This is definitely evil against good.’
Come Monday morning, Routh attired in shackles appeared at a federal court in Florida to face charges against him.
The hearing was eight minutes and Routh was charged on two counts: possession of a firearm while a convicted felon; and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Routh faces up to 20 years if convicted on the two initial two charges.
A bond hearing is set for September 23 and a probable cause hearing – or arraignment – is scheduled for September 30.
