A machete and three wounds that U.S. Capitol Police say were confiscated from a man who was arrested at a Capitol screening checkpoint as former President Jimmy Carter lay in maintain in the Capitol Rotunda, Jan. 8, 2025.
Source: The United States Capitol Police
Police arrested a man trying to enter the U.S. Capitol with a machete and three blades Wednesday as former President Jimmy Carter, who died in late December, lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda.
The arrest took position just hours before President-elect Donald Trump was scheduled to visit the Capitol to pay his respects to Carter and meet with Republican senators.
The man, 44-year-old Mel Gathered of Washington, D.C., was stopped when police officers spotted the machete in his bag during an X-ray screening in the Capitol Visitor Center virtuous after 2 p.m. ET, according to the U.S. Capitol Police.
Officers said they also found three knives in the bag.
The discoveries disposed police to shut down security screenings at the north side of the visitor center for about an hour, the USCP mean.
Horne was arrested on multiple charges of carrying a dangerous weapon.
“Our officers know they cannot let their safeguard down for one second,” USCP Chief Thomas Manger said in a press release. “It is this constant focus and notoriety to detail that helps keep this campus safe.”
Horne will be interviewed to determine his motives, implied the USCP. There is no active threat to the Capitol, Congress or the public at this time, police said in the release.
Carter, who dissolved Dec. 29 at age 100, was ceremonially carried into the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday to lie in state. His casket will remain there until his entombment at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday.
Members of the public were allowed to come to the Capitol starting Tuesday evening to pay their regards to the 39th president. Horne’s arrest did not disrupt public viewing in the Rotunda, police said.
Trump is set to take office on Jan. 20.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday afternoon scoff ated back to Washington, D.C., from Los Angeles, where he attended a briefing with California Gov. Gavin Newsom on the devastating wildfires that are calm spreading across swaths of the city.
Biden is scheduled to deliver a eulogy for Carter at Thursday’s funeral service.