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Adair County, KY – The fugitive wanted for threatening to shoot President Donald Trump and the Northampton County district attorney is now suspected of breaking into the house of the brother of Medal of Honor recipient, Dakota Meyer.
Shawn Christy, 27, has been on the run since mid-June, and is currently the subject of a nationwide manhunt spearheaded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Marshals, and the U.S. Secret Service.
According to the FBI, Christy is also accused of saying that he would “use ‘lethal force’ on any law enforcement officer attempting to detain him,” the Lexington Herald Leader reported.
He is believed to be armed and dangerous.
According to the Courier Journal, Christy is described as a white male with short, dark blonde hair and a beard. He is approximately 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighs approximately 160 pounds, and had a tattoo of a cross on his upper right arm.
At approximately 6:20 p.m. on Thursday, Timothy Gilliam arrived home to discover that his front door had been kicked in, the Lexington Herald Leader reported.
Gilliam is the brother of Kentucky Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, who was formerly married to 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol Palin, according to the Courier Journal.
Police arrived at the scene and learned that the suspect had stolen food from Gilliam’s refrigerator and that Gilliam’s 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a black hood was missing from his garage.
Surveillance footage of the burglary suggest that Christy was responsible for the break-in.
Christy, a Pennsylvania native, is wanted for a federal count of interstate communication of threats against President Trump, the Lexington Herald Leader reported.
According to FOX News, Christy posted a threatening message on Facebook on June 12, which referenced both Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli and the U.S. President.
“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. Remember where you came from punk,” Christy posted.
Authorities began searching for Christy at about 5 a.m. on June 20, Robert Clark, a supervisor with the Marshals Service’s Fugitive Task Force told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
U.S. Marshals executed a warrant at Christy’s home with help from Secret Service, FBI, Pennsylvania State Police, McAdoo PD, and Kline Township PD, the Schuylkill County District Attorney’s Office, and the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office.
“He is believed to be a clear and present danger to the immediate law enforcement community,” Marshal Clark said. “He is wanted for making threats against the president of the United States and other government officials via social media.”
The marshal also said that Christy has threatened to “shoot any law enforcement officer who attempts to arrest him,” the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.
A search near Christy’s home turned up nothing, and his father, Craig Christy, told WFMZ that if he had gone into the woods, police were going to have a hard time finding him because he’s a survivalist who can easily get by under the radar.
Craig said that his son had been told that two of his court cases were postponed, and so he didn’t need to go to court in May. However, only one case had been postponed and a bench warrant for his son’s arrest was issued, Craig told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
On June 6, Christy demanded that obstruction of justice charges be pressed against a Berks County detective.
“I will not show up to any court dates or follow any conditions of probation until this happens. If you want a war, I promise I will give you a war,” he posted on that occasion.
Police said that Christy allegedly broke into his former workplace at Hazleton Oil on July 9 and stole a Ford F-350 pickup, which was later located in Constable, New York, just 100 yards from the Canadian border, The Morning Call reported.
According to the FBI, Christy ditched a stolen Dodge Caravan in West Virginia on July 31, then allegedly stole a pickup from West Virginia on Aug. 2, the Lexington Herald Review reported. The stolen truck was located in Adair County on Aug. 4, the FBI said.
Christy has a history of threatening elected officials and authority figures.
He first made headlines when then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin filed for a restraining order against him in 2010.
According to court documents, the former vice-presidential candidate alleged that Christy “falsely claimed to have had a sexual relationship” with her, and said he wanted to sexually assault her, the Daily Mail reported.
In his letters to Palin, Christy signed off with the tagline, “your magic enemy,” according to court documents.
He was sentenced to probation after he pleaded guilty to also harassing Palin’s attorneys by telephone in 2011, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. He violated his probation and later ended up serving two years in federal prison.
When Christy posted the most recent threats to Facebook, he was already awaiting trial for an incident involving the former mayor in McAdoo, WFMZ reported.
He was arrested and charged with aggravated assault for allegedly swinging a stick at then-Mayor Stephen Holly in 2017, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.
Christy also pleaded guilty in April to making terroristic threats to a Berkheimer tax collection agent in Bangor. He was sentenced to 12 months of probation and ordered to attend anger management classes in that case, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
He was also charged in 2015, after he harassed a teacher and an administrator at McCann School of Business, and pleaded guilty in both cases.