GREENSBORO, N.C. – Ryan Routh, the man named as a suspect in what authorities believe was an assassination attempt against former President Trump on Sunday, deteriorated from a successful roofer to a man who thought the IRS was sending the cops after him, according to a retired officer who had more than 100 interactions with Routh.
Routh's arrest record in Guilford County, North Carolina, spans between the 1980s and 2010, and his charges range from writing multiple bad checks to felony firearm possession, possession of a stolen vehicle and multiple counts of possession of a weapon of mass destruction in 2002 — specifically, a "binary explosive with a 10-in[ch] detonation cord and a blasting cap."
"Routh's attitude was that he was above everybody. He could do what he wanted," Eric Rasecke, a retired Greensboro Police Department officer and Air Force veteran, told Fox News Digital. "It didn't matter. He was pretty entitled. … He ran his mouth quite a bit about how he could get off and how he owned a successful business and nobody could do anything to him and he knew everybody in Greensboro."
The first time Rasecke met Routh was in the late 1990s when the now-retired officer pulled him over for a traffic violation.
"You'd see him all the time riding his company trucks," Rasecke said. He saw Routh at least once a day because the suspect lived and worked in Rasecke's patrol zone.
"It would be not uncommon to have him cited many times a week. He was brazen about it," Rascecke said of Routh's blatant and repeated use of a vehicle with an expired license and registration. "He would never try to hide it."
Over the years, it was clear to Rasecke, however, that Routh was using drugs over the years and his physical appearance showed it as he lost weight and became more "paranoid."
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"As years went by, you could see a change in him," Rasecke said, noting later charges against Routh that escalated from minor traffic violations to a hit-and-run, possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of stolen goods, and eventually the weapon of mass destruction charges. In many cases involving multiple charges against Routh for a single incident, his defenders would get the court to dismiss or drop charges to alleviate the docket, Rasecke said, particularly because he was not a "particularly dangerous person," and his crimes never resulted in bodily injury.
In December 2002, Routh barricaded himself inside his business — then located on Lee Street — with a semi-automatic rifle after being pulled over. The incident lasted approximately three hours before Routh surrendered and was apprehended without incident, The Greensboro News & Record reported at the time.
"Negotiators came in. Special teams were activated, and after a couple hours of negotiations, he surrendered himself," Rasceke recalled of the barricade incident.
"Because of his flagrant, above-the-law mentality, the fact that he felt like he could do anything, the city was after him because of his problems, the police were always picking on him, the drugs could warp…his mind, the issue of him barricading himself inside the business…should have put a red flag on his name," the retired officer explained.
Remnants of Routh's roofing company called United Roofing in Greensboro still remain in a vacant lot on Husbands Street, though his actual business location where he barricaded himself two decades ago was located on what was formerly called Lee Street. Routh moved to Hawaii years ago, according to those who knew him.
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Timothy Pruitt, branch manager of the local Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc., said he had numerous interactions with Routh in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Routh's business was taking off.
Routh had "90 people working for him at one time," Pruitt said.
Their interactions were normal. Pruitt described Routh as a "nice" guy when he knew the former Greensboro resident. Pruitt eventually learned from Routh's daughter that Routh had apparently moved from Greensboro to Arizona, and then possibly Alaska, before his most recent home state of Hawaii.
About seven or eight months ago, Pruitt said, he looked Routh up on Facebook and saw that he had been posting frequently about politics and the Russia-Ukraine war. He thought about messaging Routh at the time but decided against it. Then, on Sunday, when Pruitt saw Routh's photo on the television in connection with a suspected assassination attempt against Trump, he couldn't believe it.
"I said, ‘Oh my goodness. That’s crazy,'" Pruitt recalled.
Daniel Redford, president of the Charlotte Fraternal Order of Police, told Fox News Digital that Routh is "one of many people that probably have similar criminal records," but the thing that concerns him most is the fact that Redford had access to firearms despite being a repeat convicted felon.
"Obviously, from law enforcement, when someone has an extensive record…those are red flags just from a safety aspect of things," Redford said. "But there are a lot of people with violent pasts who have changed their ways. You just have to be cautious."
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Redford said he believes "punishments need to be stronger for felons that are in possession of a weapon."
Redford said it's not totally surprising to see a copycat assassination suspect after the first attempt on the former president's life at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
"We’re in such a volatile political moment right now. … It's just, and I don't mean to be insensitive…bringing all the crazies out," Redfrod said. "Both sides are guilty of inciting some type of violence and aggression. People doing it for the thrill, for the attention — I don’t understand what goes through people's minds."
Criminal defense attorney Brett Rosen similarly told Fox News Digital that he does not "think that Routh’s lengthy criminal record should have been a red flag for law enforcement."
"There’s over 300 million people living in the U.S., and there’s no indication or any information that in the past or recent past of him threatening to harm President Trump," Rosen said in a statement. "The real red flag here, if true, is that Routh was at the golf course location for approximately 12 hours. It’s very difficult to believe that the Secret Service or any law enforcement did a precursory sweep of the course before he played. If they had done one, they most likely would’ve discovered Routh well before at this location that the Secret Service agent opened fire on him."
Rosen added that he would not be surprised if authorities charge Routh with attempted murder in the near future if they have enough evidence to do so.
