New video shows Palm Beach Gardens police stopped Michael Rodrigues for speeding about three hours before he was arrested at Palm Beach International Airport with weapons in his car.
The 11-minute traffic stop was captured on an officer’s body camera, which WPTV requested through a public records request. The footage shows the stop started around 3:18 a.m., after an officer said Rodrigues was speeding at 90 mph.
WATCH: Video shows officer looking in Rodrigues' car
Rodrigues, according to the footage, immediately exited his vehicle without receiving instructions and walked towards the officer. He initially said he was on his way to the hospital to visit his brother.
“My brother is sick,” Rodrigues said to the officer. “My brother is really sick so I just had to get there. I’m all he’s got… My brother has asthma problems."
WATCH: Body cam video of Rodrigues' Aug. 5 traffic stop
He would later tell the officer he was headed to the “dog track” after the traffic stop concluded around 3:30 a.m. Rodrigues wasn’t given a ticket for driving at 90 mph, when the speed limit was 60 mph.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) said Rodrigues' car is seen on security camera footage entering the airport around 5 a.m.
According to the arrest report, an airport security employee contacted PBSO the morning of Aug. 5, concerning a suspicious-looking man inside a vehicle in an employee-only restricted area.
When police arrived and made contact with the suspect, identified as Michael Rodrigues, 41, they questioned why he was in that area of the airport. Rodrigues pointed to a golf bag case, which he said he retrieved from the trash. Police observed two throwing knives inside the golf bag.
When police asked for Rodrigues' ID, he said he did not have one on hand and that the vehicle he was inside was a rental.
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Rodrigues proceeded to reach for a black case sitting outside the car on the floor, saying that he believed his ID could be inside. Police noticed a large concealed knife inside the bag.
Police then asked Rodrigues for proof of the vehicle's registration or rental agreement. Rodrigues then gave police permission to search the vehicle to look for the papers.
When searching the car, police found a fully-loaded rifle magazine in the glove compartment, and a fully-loaded AR-15 rifle against the front passenger seat of the car that was wrapped in a blanket.
The body camera footage shows an officer looking into the car window during the traffic stop, but it’s unclear what the officer saw inside the car.
Stuart Kaplan, a former FBI agent, said the officer likely needed more probable cause to fully search the vehicle. He said a traffic stop isn’t enough to conduct a full search of the vehicle.
“If there was nothing in what is known as plain view, or nothing that should have risen to create probable cause or reasonable suspicion,” Kaplan said. “The police officer wouldn’t have been in his right or her right to then escalate that investigative contact to searching that vehicle.”
