A woman who raised concerns about Trump assassination suspect Ryan Routh to U.S. authorities over two years ago, said more could’ve been done to protect the former president.
“Ryan Routh is a ticking time bomb,” Chelsea Walsh recalls telling U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials at Dulles International Airport in June 2022.
Walsh, who worked as a nurse aid worker in Kyiv during the first months of the war in Ukraine, recently told the Associated Press about the troubling interactions she’d had with Routh, who had traveled to Ukraine to recruit foreign soldiers to join the fight.
As time went on, she recalls, Routh would become angrier, more aggressive and unhinged, threatening to burn down a music studio, kicking a panhandler and even speaking about his children with hatred.
Martin County Sheriff’s Office via AP
In this imaged released by the Martin County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office, law enforcement officers arrest Ryan Routh, the man suspected in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024.
Routh would also describe his plot to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he would “kill him in his sleep” and giving detailed explanations of the explosives and poisons he planned to use to reach his goal.
According to Walsh, she first notified authorities of her concerns in June 2022, during an hour-long interview with Customs and Border Protection officials. She also repeated her concerns to investigators of the FBI and the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol.
“There is one person you need to watch,” she said. “And that is Ryan Routh.”
Routh was arrested on Sept. 15 after authorities said he was caught hiding in the bushes at a golf court in West Palm Beach near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
The 58-year-old, who was allegedly armed with an AK-47-style assault rifle, was later charged with two gun crimes in connection with the incident.
According to Walsh, she hadn’t thought much about Routh until she saw him in the news, accused of stalking the former president in an apparent assassination attempt.
Walsh, who lives just miles from the West Palm Beach golf course, said more could have been done to avoid the potentially deadly incident.
“The authorities have definitely dropped the ball on this,” she said. “They were warned.”
With News Wire Services
