North Carolina
North Carolina neighbor of would-be Trump assassin Ryan Wesley Routh says ‘people were afraid of him’
A longtime neighbor of alleged Donald Trump gunman Ryan Wesley Routh in North Carolina has admitted Routh was “a little cuckoo” and “a lot of people were afraid” of him.
“I knew he was a little cuckoo,” the anonymous neighbor, who claimed to have known Routh for nearly two decades when he lived in Greensboro, told Fox 8 Sunday, adding, “He’s going to be going away for a long time.”
The woman, however, was still stunned that the devoted Democrat would target the former president.
“I mean, trying to shoot Trump? That’s a lot. I would have never guessed, and I would have swore up and down, no, that’s not him,” Routh’s dumbfounded former neighbor said.
“I just can’t believe it. I mean, if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I mean the pictures and stuff and all, then I wouldn’t be able to believe that.”
She claimed to have seen Routh with “a lot of guns,” and that his behavior instilled fear in others around the neighborhood when he was living in the Tar Heel State.
“I’ve seen the guns myself and all, and, yeah, they had a lot of guns and stuff over there, and, yeah, a lot of people were afraid of him back in the day,” she told the outlet.
Here’s what we know about the assassination attempt on Trump in Florida:
The awestruck neighbor said she last spoke with Routh before he moved to Hawaii in May.
She claimed that nothing seemed off with him when the alleged would-be assassin left North Carolina.
“He told me it was the last day he was here and he hugged me goodbye, and, yeah, he actually hugged me,” she told the outlet.
Routh even gifted her a shirt from Hawaii and hired her son to help with the move, she shared.
“I thought he was just living the life in Hawaii with the girlfriend and all,” his former neighbor said.
“For him to be assassinating the president, that’s just crazy.”
Routh’s LinkedIn page shows he attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University but relocated to Hawaii sometime around 2018.
The 58-year-old accused wannabe assassin has a lengthy criminal record from North Carolina, frequently posted about politics, and exclusively donated to Democratic candidates and causes dating back to 2019.
Somebody with Routh’s same full name and date of birth racked up more than a dozen criminal charges in 2001 and 2002, including for carrying a concealed weapon and a hit and run, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction.
The alleged gunman also picked up a particularly alarming felony in April 2002 for “possessing a weapon of mass destruction,” records show.
On Sunday, Routh was spotted by Secret Service agents near the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach with a scoped AK-47 rifle.
He had set up a GoPro camera on the fence apparently to record the shooting and built a makeshift sniper’s nest in the hedges at the edge of the golf course, waiting for Trump to come into view.
The Secret Service opened fire on Routh, who fled and was arrested on I-95 by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office a short time later.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the suspect took cover near a chain-link fence between 300 and 500 yards from Trump as he teed off at the fifth hole around 2 p.m. — noting that “with a rifle and scope, like, that is not a long distance.”
The suspect’s motives are not yet known.
North Carolina
Former Madison County chief deputy in North Carolina custody after Arizona arrest
AVERY COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — Former Madison County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Bronis Coy Phillips was processed on Thursday, June 25, in a North Carolina county, according to court documents.
The warrants were served in Avery County on behalf of Madison County. He is now being held without bond, according to the court paperwork.
SBI ARRESTS FORMER MADISON CO. CHIEF DEPUTY FOR CRIMINAL ACTIVITY INVOLVING INMATES, STAFF
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation announced that Phillips was arrested on June 14 in Maricopa County, Arizona. He’s expected to face charges in N.C., as News 13 previously reported.
According to court records, Phillips faces multiple felony charges, including:
- Furnishing controlled substances to inmates
- Furnishing deadly weapons to inmates
- Involuntary servitude
- Two counts of assault with a firearm on a detention facility employee
COURT RECORDS REVEAL NEW DETAILS IN FORMER MADISON CO. CHIEF DEPUTY ARREST
He was also charged with two misdemeanors:
- Furnishing alcoholic beverages to inmates
- Furnishing tobacco products to inmates
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The NCSBI said the charges stem from an investigation into alleged criminal activity involving inmates and detention facility staff.
North Carolina
NC State, UNC planning nonconference men’s basketball game this season
North Carolina and NC State, scheduled to meet just once in the men’s basketball regular season for the second consecutive season, are working to schedule a nonconference meeting in Greensboro in December, WRAL has learned.
The Atlantic Coast Conference rivals had played annual games in Raleigh and in Chapel Hill for more than 100 years before last season when the teams met just once in Raleigh. This season, the ACC scheduled just one meeting between the schools in Chapel Hill.
The additional meeting, which is not finalized, would be played Dec. 15 in Greensboro, according to a source.
The 18-team ACC moved from 20 conference games to 18 before last season in an attempt to improve the league’s NCAA Tournament credentials. It worked as the league received eight bids to the NCAA Tournament in 2026, but it also created some scheduling changes, including the elimination of a second game between NC State and UNC in most seasons.
The current conference schedule dictates that each school plays two teams twice (a primary partner and a variable partner), plays 14 teams once and misses one school altogether. In 2026-27, UNC will play Duke (primary) and Louisville (variable) twice and won’t play Clemson. NC State will play Wake Forest (primary) and California (variable) twice and won’t play Syracuse.
Greensboro was the longtime home of the conference office. The ACC men’s basketball tournament has been held at First Horizon Coliseum, formerly the Greensboro Coliseum, 29 times – the most in league history.
For decades, the ACC played a true round robin among its members — a format that became unworkable as the league grew to 12, 15 and, now, 18 basketball-playing schools.
State lawmakers have pursued various measures to force schools in the UNC System to play each other, citing the economic impact of such meetings. North Carolina and NC State are UNC System schools.
A 2024 bill would have required the two ACC schools to play each other and other in-state public universities in football and basketball. A 2025 bill, aimed at potential conference realignment, would have required that NC State and UNC play each annually in football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball. The Senate’s 2025 budget proposal would have required more basketball games between UNC, NC State and smaller schools across the state. The budget would have added UNC and NC State to the schools that receive annual distributions from sports betting tax revenue.
None of those measures have become law.
NC State and North Carolina have been conference mates since 1911, first in the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association, then in the Southern Conference and now the ACC. Both have been members of the ACC since its 1953 founding.
North Carolina
Great Horned Owl kills barn owl owlet on North Carolina Wildlife Live Cam
There is some sad news from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s popular Barn Owl Live Cam.
Wildlife officials say a Great Horned Owl entered the barn Wednesday around midnight and killed one of the barn owl owlets. Biologists have not been able to determine which owlet was lost.
They have confirmed it was one of the three youngest birds in the nest. The Wildlife Commission says the incident is heartbreaking but also a natural part of life in the wild.
Great Horned Owls are one of the main predators of Barn Owls, and encounters between the two species do happen. The attack was captured on the live camera.
Officials say the video also shows an extremely rare moment when the adult female Barn Owl fought the Great Horned Owl on top of the nest box. Despite the loss, the surviving owlets are expected to continue growing over the coming weeks.
They will lose their fluffy down feathers, begin exploring outside the barn, and continue developing hunting skills.
The Wildlife Commission says some of the young owls could leave the nest as early as July.
After leaving the nest, they usually travel alone and may eventually move hundreds of miles from where they hatched. The Barn Owl Live Cam remains available for the public to watch.
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