A Virginia man with fake inaugural credentials, a loaded handgun and more than 500 rounds of ammunition was busted while trying to pass through a U.S. Capitol Police checkpoint in downtown Washington on Friday, according to authorities.
The arrest was made about 6:30 p.m., according to a police report tweeted Saturday by a Washington TV station. CNN first reported the arrest.
Wesley Allen Beeler pulled his pickup truck to a police vehicle checkpoint just north of the Capitol, the police report said.
The checkpoint was set up after a deadly siege of the Capitol on Jan. 6 put Washington on a near-lockdown ahead of Wednesday’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
Beeler, of Front Royal, Virginia, gave officers an unauthorized inauguration credential, the police report noted. His windshield stickers included one that advised, “If they come for your guns Give ‘em your bullets first,” and another that declared, “Assault Life,” with a picture of a rifle.
When police asked Beeler if he was carrying any weapons, he told them he had a Glock semiautomatic pistol in the center armrest — loaded with 17 rounds of ammunition and a round in the chamber, the news outlet reported.
Police later recovered the pistol, as well as 509 rounds of ammunition, shotgun shells and a magazine for the handgun, according to an incident report from the Metropolitan Police Department.
Beeler was arrested for possession of an unregistered firearm and possession of unregistered ammunition, among other offenses, that police report stated.
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