A man who raced into Congress on Monday wielding a handgun and frightening the Capitol into a lockdown that recalled a double shooting eight years earlier, is scheduled to appear in court today to face weapons charges.
Carlos Greene allegedly passed through Capitol Police security by maneuvering his sport-utility vehicle close behind a construction truck at the still-under-construction Capitol Visitors’ Center.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton told The Examiner that police said the man was armed with a two-shot derringer as he raced up the Capitol steps and into a basement floor. He was tackled by the police in a sub-basement. “It is some comfort to me,” she said, “that you have be out of your mind to think this [is] how to get into the Capitol.” Norton credited the police with handling the situation smoothly and said they will close the construction gap Greene used.
Police said Greene appeared to be having a seizure and he was taken to a local hospital.
Theincident cast the Capitol into turmoil as authorities searched the building to make sure there were no other dangers.
It rattled nerves of staffers and police alike, many of whom recalled the 1998 shooting that left two Capitol Police dead by the hands of a deranged gunman.
Prosecutors were preparing charges against Greene late Monday and he was likely to appear for arraignment today.
