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From the Wall Street Journal: The gunman suspected of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump acted so erratically during his years as a pro-Ukraine activist that other Americans who encountered him flagged his behavior to U.S. authorities.
Ryan Wesley Routh was taken into custody in Florida on Sunday after Secret Service personnel spotted and opened fire at a man pointing a rifle through the fence at a West Palm Beach club where Trump was golfing. The man fled in a black Nissan and was quickly apprehended.
But it was Routh’s time in Ukraine, where he traveled shortly after the Russian invasion in 2022 hoping to join the fight, where his tumultuous life full of failures and brushes with the law seemed to spiral further downward—and to alarm those who came in contact with him.
Chelsea Walsh, a nurse who had several encounters with Routh in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2022, said his threats of violence worried her so much that she conveyed her concerns to a Customs and Border Protection officer in an hourlong interview at Washington’s Dulles airport in June 2022.
Walsh, a nurse from West Palm Beach, reportedly told the CBP officer that that Routh was among the most dangerous Americans she met during the time she served in Ukraine.
Walsh had listed Routh in a notebook, at the top of a list of people labeled under “Overall Predatory Behavior (or antisocial traits)”.
Sarah Adams, a former CIA officer who helped organize volunteer groups in Ukraine, said Routh was well known among volunteer aid groups in Ukraine as a “fraudster” and “kind of a whack job.”
Routh also allegedly touted his efforts to recruit Afghans and Syrians to help fight in Ukraine, which raised red flags for many other volunteers.
After Routh was arrested and identified as the suspect in the assassination attempt against Trump on Sunday, Walsh reportedly called the FBI tip line and shared her concerns in a 22-minute phone call.
Exclusive: The gunman suspected of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump acted so erratically during his years as a pro-Ukraine activist that other Americans flagged his behavior to U.S. authorities https://t.co/SmDolfZGE6 https://t.co/SmDolfZGE6
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 17, 2024
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