The son of the man accused in an apparent shooting attempt on Donald Trump says his father is a “honest, hard-working man” – although he “hated” Trump.

It came as bizarre details emerged about the life of 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, who has been detained after what the FBI has called an attempted assassination of the Republican presidential candidate.

It began when US Secret Service agents spotted and fired on a gunman in bushes surrounding Trump’s golf course in Palm Beach, Florida, as the former president played a round with a key donor on Sunday.

Authorities said a rifle barrel was sighted poking through the chainmail fence about 350-450 metres from Trump.

Agents fired at least four rounds of ammunition about 1.30pm, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.

The gunman dropped his rifle, two backpacks and other items and fled. Bradshaw said a witness took photos of the man’s black Nissan, including its licence plate.

A statewide alert was sent out and Routh was apprehended by sheriff’s deputies on an interstate highway in neighbouring Martin County.

“We have somebody in custody right now that is a potential suspect. In the bushes, where this guy was, is an AK-47-style rifle with a scope,” Bradshaw said.

He said investigators also found two backpacks filled with ceramic tile, and a GoPro camera hanging on a fence at the golf course.

Long police record

It emerged on Monday that Routh has an extensive police record dating back decades.

He has also been accused of failing to pay taxes, according to court records cited by CNN. In addition, he has reportedly been ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in various civil suits.

In 2002, Routh was arrested after barricading himself inside a building in North Carolina with an automatic weapon. More recently, he appears to have allied himself heavily to the war in Ukraine.

Last year, he told the publication Semafor that he was director of a group called International Volunteer Centre. He spoke of his frustration over what he said were roadblocks to admitting foreign fighters, including Afghan commandos, who wanted to join Ukraine’s war effort.

“Ukraine is very often hard to work with,” he told Semafor. “They’re afraid that anybody and everybody is a Russian spy.”

In 2022, Routh was interviewed by Newsweek while in Ukraine. He said he was 56 and from North Carolina, and had flown in from Hawaii. He also urged greater US government support for the embattled country.

“This conflict is definitely black and white,” he said. “This is about good versus evil.”

In a post on X, Routh wrote: “I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE.”

In 2020, Routh made a social media post backing Trump’s re-election. In more recent years his posts have expressed support for Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and he has made donations to the Democratic Party.

In April, Routh posted that Biden’s campaign should be “called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA …make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”

Routh’s eldest son, Oran, said his father hated Trump, “like all reasonable people”. But he told CNN via text that Routh was “a loving and caring father, and honest hard-working man”.

“I don’t know what’s happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion, because from the little I’ve heard, it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent,” he wrote.

Ryan Routh was once a Trump supporter, but appears to have switched allegiances.

‘Safe and well’

Within hours of the attempted shooting, Trump sent an email to his fundraising list saying there were “gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumours start spiraling [sic] out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!”.

He was injured in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on July 13, raising questions about protection for candidates just months ahead of the highly contested November 5 election with Harris.

Biden said on Monday he was relieved Trump was unharmed and would ensure the Secret Service had “every resource” to keep him safe. Harris said she was “disturbed” by the apparent shooting.

“As we gather the facts, I will be clear: I condemn political violence. We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence,” she said in a statement released by the White House.

“As President Biden said, our administration will ensure the Secret Service has every resource, capability, and protective measure necessary to carry out its critical mission.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – a staunch Republican and one-time Trump rival – posted on X that the state would conduct its own investigation into the incident as people “deserve the truth about the would-be assassin”.

Democratic representative Jared Moskowitz, who is also from Florida and is on a bipartisan task force investigating the Pennsylvania shooting, said people in the US Congress were “bewildered why we’re in this situation for a second time”.

Moskowitz said although much remained unknown, Routh should not have been able to obtain a firearm in Florida. He said it was possible he brought his weapon into the state.