Alex Dobuzinskis

A Pennsylvania man who threatened to shoot President Donald Trump has been arrested in Ohio after a three-month manhunt during which he stole cars and firearms and passed between a half-dozen states and Canada, officials said on Saturday.

Shawn Richard Christy, 27, was armed with a .380 caliber handgun and a knife when he was captured on Friday in a densely wooded area of Mifflin Township in Richland County, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement.

“It’s been a long three months, believe me,” U.S. Marshals Service Supervisory Deputy Robert Clark said by telephone, describing the search for the suspect.

Christy previously made headlines in 2010 after Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican nominee for vice president, obtained a restraining order against him over threatening phone calls that authorities said Christy and his father made to people close to Palin.

This past June, Christy, a resident of McAdoo, Pennsylvania, threatened Trump in a Facebook post in which he also lashed out at Northampton County, Pennsylvania, district attorney John Morganelli, authorities said.

Christy had failed to appear in court for an aggravated assault case in Pennsylvania and was facing accusations of other crimes in the state, Clark said.

“Keep it up Morganelli, I promise I’ll put a bullet in your head as soon as I put one in the head of President Donald J. Trump,” Christy is accused of writing on Facebook.

Christy, who was charged in federal court with threatening the president and law enforcement officials, went missing soon after making the Facebook post.

Authorities believe Christy left Pennsylvania for northern New York state, snuck into Canada then returned and passed through West Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland before ending up in Ohio.

Along the way, he stole four firearms and multiple cars, including one taken in Kentucky from U.S. Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, Clark said. Meyer is a U.S. Marine who was previously married to Palin’s daughter, Bristol.

It was not immediately clear why Christy targeted Meyer, Clark said.

Christy and his father, Craig, could not be reached for comment.

The manhunt intensified this week with about 100 law enforcement agents fanning out to find Christy after the suspect was tracked to Ohio, where he was believed to have crashed a stolen pick-up truck, officials said. (Reuters)

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