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The man accused of pointing a rifle into the golf course where Donald Trump was playing last weekend was known in his hometown of Greensboro, N.C. Fifty-eight-year-old Ryan Routh had a complicated past, including many run-ins with the law. NPR's Tovia Smith reports from Greensboro.
TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: One of Routh's former neighbors called him weird, saying he once had a horse in his house and also kept guns. Another couple, who, like the first neighbor, asked not to be identified for fear of being associated with Routh, didn't know the 58-year-old well but got a similar vibe.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I mean, seemed to be pretty strange.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: You never know who's in the neighborhood.
SMITH: But if some neighbors didn't know Routh well, the police sure did.
ERIC RASECKE: We were on first-name basis. You know, it's you again. And, you know, he's like, oh, Officer Rasecke, you know? I'm like, Ryan, why are you still driving?
SMITH: Eric Rasecke, now retired, patrolled where Routh lived and worked and says he's had well over a hundred run-ins with him. It started with traffic violations, like driving with no registration or a suspended license. Rasecke says Routh was a cocky guy with a grandiose view of himself. He would always be running his mouth, as Rasecke puts it, but always stopping short of any explicit threat.
RASCKE: He would give me a smirk and comment towards me, like, oh, I hope you're doing well, and, you know, life is short. You never know.
SMITH: Rasecke says he watched Routh rapidly unravel from a solid citizen and owner of a successful roofing business.
RASCKE: You know, through the years, his appearance went from clean cut, well-groomed to becoming very thin, his eyes basically withdrawn. His body movements become shaky, paranoid, very indicative of drug usage.
SMITH: Rasecke says during Routh's downward spiral, he always blamed everyone else.
RASCKE: It's always, you're picking on me. The city's picking on me. Everyone was against him, trying to ruin his business, trying to ruin his life, trying to condemn his house.
Oh, my God - memories.
SMITH: Rasecke walks through an empty, overgrown lot where Routh's small house once stood. He remembers Routh living there along with a half dozen or so workers from his roofing company.
RASCKE: It was very dingy and dirty. And, you know, there was mattresses on the floor, trash on the floor. It stunk. It was nasty.
SMITH: Across the street, Routh kept a large trailer, where Rasecke says more workers lived. Around it, heaps of junk remain today fenced in and under cover.
RASCKE: He didn't have this tarp over the front until after I caught him with the stolen vehicle. And the hit-and-run vehicle was parked directly in front of his house.
SMITH: For Rasecke, it's like a catalog of Routh's crimes at his home and nearby business.
RASCKE: This is where he drove to and our standoff was.
SMITH: That was one of Routh's most serious crimes. During a traffic stop in 2002, when an officer saw a machine gun in his car, Rasecke says Routh became irate, sped away and barricaded himself inside his business with explosives. Routh was convicted of a felony for possession of a weapon of mass destruction. Routh also had more than his share of legal trouble in his business.
HOWIE LABINER: It's never good when a sheriff says, we know this guy. That's usually a giveaway that something's not going on very well over there.
SMITH: Trial lawyer Howie Labiner won a $28,000 suit against Routh in 2008 for a client who was also in the roofing business, though Labiner says Routh never paid up. And he says his client's case was not unique.
LABINER: There are three-plus pages of court cases against Mr. Routh and his roofing companies. It was not his first rodeo. Let's put it that way.
SMITH: Routh's more recent capers are certainly more outlandish, but Rasecke says they reflect the same kind of duplicity and grandiosity - for example, Routh's posturing as a military recruiter to help save Ukraine, as he explained in a 2022 interview with Newsweek.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RYAN ROUTH: This is definitely evil against good. I mean, it blows my mind that I'm standing here alone without thousands of people from every country, from everywhere. We need everybody here. You know, if...
SMITH: Months later, in a self-published e-book, Routh questioned why Russian President Vladimir Putin had not been assassinated and suggested that Trump might deserve the same fate. When Routh was arrested Sunday in the alleged assassination attempt, Rasecke says that was shocking - but only sort of.
RASCKE: I mean, considering how things were progressively going downhill with him, it does make sense. The dots kind of connect. And I can see where this could have actually happened.
SMITH: Routh's family members did not respond to repeated requests from NPR, but a son described Routh to CNN as a loving and caring father and honest, hardworking man who would never do anything crazy, much less violent. Tovia Smith, NPR News, Greensboro, N.C.
(SOUNDBITE OF AKON SONG, "CRACK ROCK") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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