Greensboro, North Carolina, police release would-be Trump assassin Routh's arrest, incident reports

North Carolina's Greensboro Police Department on Thursday publicly released arrest and incident records for would-be assassin Ryan Routh, a longtime resident of the city, in response to a public records request from Just the News. 

The records and investigation reports released by the department confirm Routh's decades-long history of run-ins with law enforcement detailed in the almost 40 separate arrest reports. 

Since the time of his first arrest in 1986, Routh has been charged with crimes, ranging from driving without a license to felony possession of a weapon of mass destruction, according to the reports and court records from Gilford County, in which Greensboro is situated. 

One investigative report covering Routh's December 2002 arrest that led to felony charges for possession of a weapon of mass destruction, sheds new light on the incident, previously reported by Just the News in the days following Routh's alleged assassination attempt against GOP presidential nominee former President Donald Trump. 

You can read the reports below:

According to the report, arresting officer Tracy Fulk, who has since publicly identified herself, detained Routh at the intersection of High Point Road and West Lee Street in Greensboro for possessing a concealed weapon. The police found two handguns and one rifle with an attached scope as well as several brands of live rounds.

“I figured he was either dead or in prison by now,” Fulk, who charged Routh after that Dec. 16, 2002 arrest told WIRED after his arrest Sunday in Florida. “I had no clue that he had moved on and was continuing his escapades.”

Fulk told WIRED that Routh, 58, was well known by local police who would receive alerts about him for weapons and explosives allegations. 

One night I recognized him in his vehicle,” she said, describing the night of the arrest. “I knew he didn’t have a driver’s license, so I stopped him right in front of his roofing shop, which was what used to be on Lee Street in Greensboro. He stopped, and as I approached his truck he pulled a sack away from the center of the seat, and I saw a gun. So of course I drew my gun and started saying, ‘Hey! Show me your hands, show me your hands.’ And he just basically pulled into his driveway and ran into his house. So we ended up having a [Special Response Team] callout and a big standoff for a couple of hours before they went in and we arrested him.”

Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Miami Field Office, Jeffrey Veltri confirmed Monday during a press conference, that Routh was convicted on the charge of possessing the guns, though it is unclear whether the would-be assassin spent any time in prison. 

He separately confirmed the bureau received a tip in 2019 that Routh was a felon in possession of a firearm and eventually forwarded that tip to local law enforcement in Honolulu, though it is not clear if any further action was taken. Routh lived in North Carolina for most of his life before moving to Kaaawa, Hawaii, in 2018.

In addition to his numerous encounters with law enforcement, Routh's strange writings and unusual foreign travel have drawn scrutiny since he was identified as the suspect behind an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump last weekend, Just the News previously reported.