By Lindsay Whitehurst
A man with a rifle was arrested in a park near the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, police said.
Police confronted 21-year-old Ahmir Lavon Merrell of Atlanta after someone saw him with the gun in a park near Senate office buildings and told an officer, U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. Officers demanded that he drop the gun, but he refused and they used a Taser stun gun to subdue him, police said.
The park and roads in the area across from Washington’s Union Station were closed for about two hours as officers searched the area and Merrell's belongings.
Officers said they did not believe there was an ongoing threat. It was not immediately clear why he was in Washington. No publicly listed contacts were available for him, and a lawyer who represented him on a previous case did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said he was proud of officers who “ran toward the man with the loaded gun.”
Carrying firearms is prohibited on U.S. Capitol grounds. So far this year, U.S. Capitol Police have confiscated more than 30 guns.
After the arrest, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he supports a ban on guns often referred to as assault weapons. “We are keeping a constant vigilance on security” in the Capitol, he said.
Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this story.
A bird strike sparked an engine fire on a plane shortly after takeoff from an Ohio airport on Sunday.
The sheriff's office in Carroll County, northeast of Louisville, has hired former Louisville police officer Myles Cosgrove, who fatally shot Taylor in a March 2020 drug raid that used a faulty warrant to break through her door.
Introducing a new fitness-related series called Shannon Shapes Up, Cheddar News correspondent Shannon LaNier hits the bag at GRIT BXNG in New York City. Check out the videos below for more on the workouts Shannon learned.
Tea expert and best-selling author Patricia Farmer stopped by the Cheddar News studio to talk about the history and art of a proper tea party.
Longtime CNN host Don Lemon is out at the cable news network a little over two months after apologizing to viewers for on-air comments about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, CNN announced Monday.
A bird strike sparked an engine fire on a plane shortly after it took off Sunday from an Ohio airport, and the airliner returned safely with no injuries reported, authorities said.
A sheriff's office in Texas says nine teenagers were shot in a home at a prom after-party attended by hundreds.
Former President Donald Trump appears in court for his arraignment in a criminal case over fraudulent business records, April 4, 2023, in New York.
The suit argues that the state's planned takeover of policing and some courts in Mississippi's capital takes democratic power from its residents, of whom 83% are Black.
Foreign governments evacuated diplomats, staff and others trapped in Sudan as rival generals battled for a ninth day. While world powers like the U.S. and Britain airlifted their diplomats from the capital of Khartoum, Sudanese desperately sought to flee the chaos.
