Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A man who entered the U.S. Capitol with a handgun in his possession and took a tour of the building faces weapons charges, police said Thursday.
The 27-year-old Massachusetts man was arrested Tuesday after Capitol police officers found him leaving the Library of Congress and walking toward his car, police said in a news release. Officers found a handgun concealed in his waistband, police said.
Nobody was hurt, and the Capitol police said they found no evidence that the man “was coming to harm the Congress.”
A police officer who allowed the man into the Capitol after searching him has been suspended pending a department investigation.
Security video showed the man entering the Capitol through a security checkpoint. After magnetometers sounded, the officer performed a “secondary hand search” and then let him into the building, police said.
The Capitol police “demands the highest standards when it comes to screening visitors, so a full review of this incident has already been ordered, as well as mandatory refresher training on security screening, so this never happens again,” the department said.
The man was arrested on charges including carrying a pistol without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm, illegal possession of ammunition and resisting arrest.
House lawmakers whose committee oversees the Capitol police said they are “severely disappointed in the security failure” and will require the department to conduct “a robust review of all visitor screening practices.”
“We must ensure this never happens again,” said a joint statement from the House Administration committee’s chair, Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wisconsin, and ranking member, Rep. Joe Morelle, D-New York.
