U.S. Capitol Lifts Lockdown After Gun-Wielding Pastor, Who Claimed Himself A ‘Prophet Of God,’ Is Shot By Police


A temporary lockdown on the U.S. Capitol was lifted by authorities after a gun-wielding man, later identified as Tennessee resident Larry Dawson, was shot by officers of the Capitol Police on Monday, according to Reuters.

The suspect, who has now been charged with assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a police officer while armed, is currently recuperating at a hospital. He remains in stable but critical condition.

Dawson walked into the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center at approximately 2:40 p.m. on Monday and “drew what appeared to be a weapon and pointed it at officers” during a routine screening, prompting officers to fire shots at him to subdue him, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa told reporters at a press conference after the incident.

A middle-aged female bystander who suffered minor injuries during the incident was also hospitalized. None of the officers were injured in the incident, Verderosa added.

The shooting caused temporary lockdowns at the U.S. Capitol and the White House. While the lockdown at the Capitol was only partially lifted on Tuesday morning, authorities said that the House, Senate, and the Library of Congress have re-opened. The Capitol Visitor Center will remain closed for another day.

US Capitol police chief addressing reporters.
United States Capitol Police chief addresses reporters after the incident. [Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]

Although the motive behind the suspect carrying a gun into the U.S. Capitol is not yet fully known, police believe that Larry Dawson was a frequent visitor at the Capitol grounds and familiar with the surroundings. According to Verderosa, the shooting was an “isolated” incident.

“We believe that this is an act of a single person who has frequented the Capitol grounds before and there is no reason to believe that this is anything more than a criminal act.

“We believe that the suspect is known to us.”

According to the Daily Beast, Dawson is the pastor of St. Luke’s Church outside Nashville and is believed to have led a “movement” to urge Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. Previously writing on his church’s website about what the movement sought to do, Dawson had claimed that the “assignment was to do the will of God in the Earth.”

Towards this end, Dawson frequently visited Washington and the U.S. Capitol. In October of last year, Dawson had yelled, “I’m a prophet of God!” from the balcony of the House of Representatives.

Larry Dawson, the Tennessee resident who was shot by Capitol police officers on Monday.
Larry Dawson, the suspect who drew a weapon in the U.S. Capitol on Monday, was shot by officers. [Image via Facebook/CBS]

Back then, Dawson attempted to evade the cops and resisted arrest, but cops chased and cuffed him for allegedly assaulting a police officer and unlawful conduct at the U.S. Capitol. Later, when the pastor was summoned for a court appearance in November, he skipped the order and instead wrote a letter to the court, which claimed that he would not follow orders made by men, according to the Washington Post.

“I have been called chosen and sent unto you this day. I am not under the law!…Therefore I will not comply with the court order, nor will I surrender myself to your office.”

It is possible Dawson’s visit to the U.S. Capitol on Monday was an extension of his attempts to approach Congress for what he believes are fair demands of a “movement.”

The scenes at the U.S. Capitol were chaotic on Monday as visitors feared the worst when the incident took place.

“We were coming out of the Capitol when we heard, ‘Shots fired, shots fired,'” one of the visitors told Nashville’s Tennessean. “It was a scary moment about what was going to happen next. We felt lucky we were there with several police officers.”

U.S. Capitol has not been immune to violence in the past, with the worst incident taking place when Russell Eugene Weston Jr., a paranoid schizophrenic, entered the building and shot and killed Capitol Police officers Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson in 1998.

[Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images]

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