WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Capitol complex was set to return to normal Tuesday, a day after police say officers shot and wounded a man who pulled a weapon at a security checkpoint as he entered the underground Capitol Visitor Center.
Capitol Police identified the man as 66-year-old Larry R. Dawson of Tennessee. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a police officer while armed. Dawson was taken to a local hospital and underwent surgery. Late Monday, police said he was in stable but critical condition.
Dawson disrupted a House session last October by yelling he was a “Prophet of God.” He was issued a “stay away order” by the District of Columbia Superior Court that same month that required him to avoid the Capitol grounds, court documents show.
Monday’s incident, in which a bystander was slightly wounded, occurred at the tourists’ entry point to a building that had heightened security even before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has had periodic scares ever since.
With last week’s suicide attacks in Brussels, Belgium, that killed 35 people fresh on people’s minds, Capitol Police Chief Matthew R. Verderosa held a brief news conference at which he preliminarily ruled out terrorism.
