Just outside the Palm Beach International Airport, Michael Rodrigues (41) was found with a loaded AR-15, ammo magazines, and other weapons Tuesday morning. Airport workers alerted Palm Beach Sheriff's Office deputies that a "suspicious" man was standing near a car in a restricted parking lot. Deputies saw the man getting dressed outside the car. After talking with him, they learned the car was a rental and found an AR-15 magazine filled with bullets inside the glove compartment. A further search discovered a fully loaded AR-15 and multiple knives hidden under a blanket. He was arrested "without incident" and charges are pending. In an average year, 3,038 people die and 6,358 are wounded by guns in Florida which has the 23rd-highest rate of gun violence in the US. Every eleven minutes someone is killed with a firearm in the US. How this lunatic was able to get hold of an assault rifle is most likely because of Florida's incredibly lax gun control laws.
Rodrigues is a convicted felon whose records dates back to 2006. He was recently arrested in April for strangling the mother of his child unconscious. She later filed a petition for an injunction against him, which she has done in the past. In 2021, Rodrigues had slammed another woman's head, his girlfriend at the time, against a door, causing blood to come from her ears. He was placed on a year of probation. He was also found guilty of beating the same woman in 2020, for which he was sentenced to about a year in jail. From 2014 to 2024, he has faced charges of burglary, grand theft, battery, dealing in stolen property, and drug possession. However, these charges were all dropped by prosecutors. In 2011, Rodrrigues was sentenced to 18 months of probation for dangerous and reckless driving violations.
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