Police have now charged the man who climbed the Trump Tower on Wednesday in an effort to have a personal audience with the presidential candidate.
Stephen Rogata, 19, from Great Falls, Virginia, has been charged with reckless endangerment and criminal trespassing after his Wednesday afternoon adventure up the side of the tower at 725 Fifth Ave., police stated. He was taken into custody by authorities who reached through an open window as he tried to pass the 21st floor.
LIVE: NYPD grab Manhattan’s Trump Tower climber to safety https://t.co/YORRP3gCLO pic.twitter.com/H0GixHPeaH
— Reuters Live (@ReutersLive) August 10, 2016
“I reached out. I took hold of his hand, and I said, ‘Sir, would you come with me,'” Detective Christopher Williams, who grabbed Rogata, was quoted byABC7. Rogata, who until recently was known as Michael Joseph Ryan, had several different identifications with him, which are now being reviewed as part of an investigation into the possibility he suffers from mental illness. RELATED:Man scaling Trump Tower in New York City wanted meeting with nominee Rogata’s Facebook page stated that he began working for the Fairfax County Republican Committee in Virginia in June 2013, according to theNew York Daily News. During his climb, he held up a notebook to the building’s occupants claiming he was a Trump supporter looking to meet the candidate. NYPD Chief William Aubry said to the Daily News that “his sole intention was to meet with Mr. Trump,” who was not in New York at the time.
Rogata was undergoing a psychological evaluation at Bellevue Hospital, according to ABC7. He “performed a ridiculous and dangerous stunt,” a statement from Trump Organization executive Michael Cohen was quoted.
