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Staff members at Hackensack Meridian Health Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank spotted Wesley Rucker, 34, of Tinton Falls carrying the gun in his waistband, federal authorities said.
“Rucker showed the security officer two identification cards in a leather bifold wallet with the Drug Enforcement Administration (”DEA”) logo embossed on the outside,” a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Trenton says.
“The cards identified Rucker as a member of the DEA,” the complaint says.
The officer had Rucker store the 9mm pistol and ammunition in a locker in the hospital’s security office. Red Bank police were called.
Rucker showed responding officers the same identification while claiming he was a DEA agent and "intelligence specialist out of Newark,” according to the federal complaint.
He then tried to tip out of the hospital, it says.
The local officers seized Rucker, along with bogus ID cards and a phony DEA badge, the complaint charges.
“The reverse side of the identification cards, hidden while in the wallet, contained warnings that the cards were for ‘cosplay collectible use only’ and that misuse of the cards could result in criminal penalties,” the complaint says.
Rucker was sentenced to state prison time in 2014 on a drug-related conviction.
As a convicted felon, he is prohibited from handling guns or ammunition.
Federal authorities charged him with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, impersonating a federal agent and possession of an imitation badge.
U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Newark and Trenton field offices and the DEA, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and Red Bank and Old Bridge police.
Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Matthews of Sellinger's Criminal Division in Trenton is handling the case.
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