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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. A Southern California man spotted with a guillotine in his truck bed near the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday has been arrested, United States Capitol Police (USCP) said.
Just after 3 p.m. ET, officers said, they noticed a pickup truck parked illegally along the 100 block of East Capitol Street—just east of the Capitol grounds near the U.S. Supreme Court. Congress and the High Court are in summer recess.
Investigators said 35-year-old Philan-Tam-Duy Le drove from California to Washington, D.C., a journey of more than 2,500 miles. Police are unsure of the reason for his cross-country trek to the nation’s capital.
“USCP investigators are going through the suspect’s background to learn more about why he came to Washington, D.C.,” police said in a press release.
Le, who is from the small town of Julian in San Diego County, faces a charge of carrying a dangerous weapon.
Photos released by police show the guillotine fully assembled and standing upright in the truck bed. Its frame extended several feet above the truck, climbing into the surrounding tree line.
Newsweek reached out to Capitol Police for additional information, including whether Le drove from California with the guillotine in his truck bed.
Capitol Police have responded to several other weapons-related incidents around the Capitol this year.
As Newsweek reported last month, officers arrested a man accused of driving to a barricade outside the Capitol with a firearm. The suspect, Wendell J. Royster, 67, of Columbia, Mississippi, arrived at the security checkpoint with a firearm in his lap and asked for directions to the Supreme Court, police said.
In February, federal prosecutors charged an 18-year-old Georgia man, accusing him of running toward the Capitol carrying a loaded shotgun while wearing tactical-style gear. Officers said they stopped him on Capitol grounds and recovered a shotgun loaded with eight rounds, along with additional ammunition, according to the Justice Department.
Authorities said that the suspect told officers he had come to speak with a member of Congress, which was not in session at the time. The arrest was made one week before President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Anna Commander and Edward T. Cummins .
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