A nurse from West Palm Beach tells WPTV she encountered the man accused of trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course, and reported him to federal authorities two years ago.
In an interview with WPTV Chief Investigator Jamie Ostroff, Chelsea Walsh described what she called "red flags" while both volunteered in Ukraine in 2022.
Walsh, a 34-year-old travel nurse who said she’s been doing humanitarian work since she was 17, traveled to Ukraine shortly after Russia invaded. She said she met Ryan Routh in Kyiv in May while she was delivering food to the eastern part of the country.
WPTV reviewed time-stamped text messages provided by Walsh confirming that she was communicating with Routh in 2022 about the war effort in Ukraine, and that she and other volunteers were concerned about his “volatile” behavior.
"There were a lot of people in Ukraine at that time who were a little bit strange or had unusual behaviors, and Ryan was one of them,” Walsh said. “So he didn't stand out at first. And over time, as I got to know him and I got to see his behaviors and mannerisms, I progressively saw something alarming.”
Walsh provided documents to WPTV that she said Routh wrote and sent to her in 2022. Some of the apparent manifestos were several pages long and included sensational references to his willingness to die for the Ukrainian people.
“I came to say, ‘Here I am, I will support Ukraine to the death, and if there is a price on Ukrainian heads, there should be a price on mine and here it is; come and get it,’” one of the documents said.
Walsh said she began hand-writing lists of volunteers with concerning behavior during her time in Ukraine. Walsh shared of those lists with WPTV, and said she also provided those names to U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents when she returned to the United States via Washington’s Dulles International Airport in June 2022.
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Neighbors describe 'strange behavior' of assassination attempt suspect
“As a nurse, we are trained to detect when people are a threat to themselves or others, and I was beginning to realize more and more that Ryan was a threat to others,” Walsh said.
Routh’s name appeared in lists of people who showed “excitement over explosions or death” and “degraded or harassed women.” Walsh also started a list of people who’d been arrested in Ukraine, and Routh’s name was the only one on it.
“Ryan told me this story because he was very proud,” Walsh explained when asked about the arrest, which has not been confirmed. "Shortly before I met him, he said that he enlisted a bunch of local Ukrainian citizens to start a protest in front of [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelensky’s house, and the protest was about freeing the Azov defenders of Mariupol. Ryan said that they nobody was allowed to protest, so everyone got put in jail at that time, including Ryan.”
Walsh said at the airport, she spoke with a federal agent for roughly an hour.
“[The agent] said that he represented Homeland Security and he was only interested in homeland security threats,” Walsh said. “I told him, 'Then there's one person you guys need to keep an eye on, because he's a ticking time bomb. His name is Ryan Routh, and he lives in Hawaii. He's coming back from Ukraine eventually, and someone needs to follow up with him.’”
Walsh said no one ever followed up with her.
When she heard Routh named as the suspect in Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt against former President Trump, Walsh said she was not surprised.
"[Routh] was very volatile, and he would turn on people very quickly. He was very calculated. He showed no remorse or empathy. He had no regard for human life. He frequently spoke of hurting people, especially ... politicians,” Walsh said.
When asked, Walsh said she could not recall whether Routh specifically talked about killing Trump, citing the amount of time since those conversations. She said Routh did speak critically about both Trump and President Biden.
Walsh said she contacted the FBI twice following Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt.
"I absolutely believe this could have been prevented," she said.
