US Capitol Police arrested a 35-year-old California man on Tuesday after officers found a guillotine standing upright in the back of his illegally parked pickup truck, close to the Capitol building and the Supreme Court. Philan-Tam-Duy Le, of Julian, California, had apparently driven across the country before the device was spotted in broad daylight in one of the most heavily secured areas of the United States, prompting an investigation into his motives and background.

Le was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon, and USCP investigators are examining why he travelled to Washington DC and what led him to bring the guillotine. The incident follows a string of unusual weapons finds around the Capitol complex, including a homemade sword and brass knuckles discovered at a Senate office building screening more than a week earlier, a machete and knives found at the Capitol Visitor Center checkpoint last year, and a 2021 case in which a bayonet and machete were found in a truck displaying white supremacist symbols near the Democratic National Committee headquarters.