GREENSBORO, N.C. — Authorities say the gunman who allegedly tried to kill former President Donald Trump was arrested in 2002 for possessing a bomb (a “weapon of mass destruction”) after a tense standoff with police.
It's just one example in a long history of dangerous and disturbing behavior described by police and neighbors in his hometown.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested by police in Greensboro, North Carolina, for a traffic violation, but things escalated when he barricaded himself inside the offices of a roofing company and was later charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction.
Tracy Fulk, the now-retired Greensboro police officer who arrested Routh at the time, told The Washington Post that Routh was under officer surveillance when he observed him driving with a revoked license and pulled him over.
“As I approached the driver's door I saw him reaching into the center of the car, and of course I shone my flashlight on him and I saw he had opened his duffel bag and had a gun in it,” Fulk recalled.
“He never picked it up. He just had his hand over the duffel bag, so I stepped back and gave him directions, and he decided to just put it in drive and drove off,” she added.
Greensboro police said Routh drove to the office and barricaded himself inside to protect himself from police, but he also had in his possession a binary bomb with a 10-inch detonation cord and a blasting cap attached, parts of an explosive device.
Fulk said he was wary of the man and called for backup while hiding behind a car.
“I think we were there for about two hours, but it felt like an eternity,” the former officer said. “I could see him pacing back and forth inside and occasionally looking out the window.
“But he didn't point the gun at anyone that night,” she added. “Once they got him to surrender, that was it.”
Fulk said he was shocked to learn that the man he met years ago was the same man accused of trying to shoot Trump on Sunday while he was playing golf at a Florida golf course.
The former officer described Routh as “polite” during his arrest but said the charges he now faces make some sense.
“I was surprised at first, but then as I started to recall the barometer reports and other officers' encounters with him, I think it was just his personality,” she said.
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Fulk's comments came after one of Routh's neighbors, Josh Patrick, 30, told The Washington Post in March that he had had multiple disturbing confrontations with Routh.
Mr Patrick described Routh as a “high-risk individual” and argued there were “warning signs” and “red flags” that he would eventually attack someone.
David Atkinson, a former employee of Rouse's United Roofing company, said he was also surprised by Sunday's arrest because he knew his former boss as a good, family-oriented man.
“Ryan acted in this way because something triggered him or provoked him, and I speak personally from my experience and I know many people who have worked for the same man and they will tell you the same thing, that is not who Ryan Routh is,” said Atkinson, who is a registered sex offender.
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But former employees acknowledged that Rouse always spoke out and was “not afraid of anyone.”
Mr Atkinson echoed the words of another former employee, Tina Cooper, 58, who, recalling a 2002 confrontation, said her former boss had a knack for “doing stupid things”.
“He was here doing the standoff and I don't know what he was thinking at the time,” Cooper told British media. “All I know is that I woke up one morning to the news that he'd been arrested and the guys needed work orders, so I went and got them.”
“[Routh] “He was threatening to blow up the entire Greensboro Police Department, and that's all documented in the police report,” she added.
