Police Arrest Armed Man Near Capitol

A Virginia man was arrested at a security checkpoint near the US Capitol on Friday evening after police said they found a pistol and more than 500 rounds of ammunition in his pickup. Seeing stickers on the truck with messages such as "If they come for your guns Give 'Em your bullets first," an officer asked Wesley Allen Beeler, of Front Royal, Virginia, if he had any weapons, WTOP reports. He answered that he had a Glock 9mm in the truck's center console. Police then searched the pickup, reporting that they found the pistol, with an extended magazine in it; another 500 rounds of ammunition for the pistol; and 21 12-gauge shotgun shells.

Beeler, a contractor, had presented inauguration credentials at the checkpoint that were genuine but unauthorized for that area, per the New York Times. The arrest was made less than a half-mile from the Capitol grounds. DC police said he's charged with carrying a concealed weapon, possessing an unregistered firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device, per WRC. Security has been greatly increased in Washington in preparation for President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration Wednesday. (More Capitol riot stories.)