Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers speaks at a marketing campaign cease in October 2022, in Milwaukee. A person illegally introduced a gun into the Wisconsin State Capitol on Wednesday demanding to see the governor and later returned with an assault rifle after posting bail.
Maury Gash/AFP
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Maury Gash/AFP
Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers speaks at a marketing campaign cease in October 2022, in Milwaukee. A person illegally introduced a gun into the Wisconsin State Capitol on Wednesday demanding to see the governor and later returned with an assault rifle after posting bail.
Maury Gash/AFP
MADISON, Wis. — A person illegally introduced a loaded gun to the Wisconsin State Capitol, demanding to see Gov. Tony Evers, and returned at evening with an assault rifle after posting bail, police stated Thursday.
The person, who was shirtless and carrying a gun, approached the governor’s workplace on the primary ground of the Capitol round 2 p.m. Wednesday, state Division of Administration spokeswoman Tatiana Warrick stated. The 43-year-old stated “he wouldn’t depart till he noticed Governor Evers” so he may converse out about “home violence towards males,” Capitol Police stated in a bulletin despatched to lawmakers and their workers.
Evers was not within the constructing on the time, Warrick stated.
A Capitol Police officer sits at a desk outdoors the suite of rooms that embody the governor’s workplace, a convention room and the lawyer common’s places of work.
The person was taken into custody for brazenly carrying a firearm within the Capitol, which is in opposition to the regulation, Warrick stated. Weapons might be introduced into the Capitol if they’re hid and the particular person has a legitimate allow. The person who was arrested didn’t have a hid carry allow, Warrick stated.
The person posted a cellphone video of his arrest on his Fb web page, and one in every of his Fb mates downloaded it and supplied it to The Related Press. Within the footage, the person tells police as they converse to him outdoors the governor’s workplace that he’s armed to “defend himself” from individuals he says the police won’t defend him from.
“I am not a menace,” the person advised police. His canine is with him.
When officers advised him it was unlawful for him to brazenly carry a firearm within the Capitol, the person stated, “I will admit that I violated that regulation.”
Warrick stated she was not conscious of the video and couldn’t touch upon it.
The person was booked into the Dane County Jail however later posted bail.
Warrick stated he returned outdoors the Capitol shortly earlier than 9 p.m., three hours after the constructing went into lockdown, with a loaded assault rifle and a collapsible police baton in his backpack. He once more demanded to see the governor and was detained.
Police stated within the bulletin they despatched to Capitol workers that the person stated “he didn’t personal a automotive and certain had a considerable amount of weapons and felt snug utilizing them.”
Capitol Police have named a suspect, however courtroom data present no expenses have been filed as of late Thursday afternoon. The AP sometimes doesn’t title suspects till they’ve been charged and efforts have been made to acquire feedback from them, their attorneys or different representatives.
Madison police stated Thursday that the person was taken into protecting custody and transported to the hospital. The AP was unable to achieve him, and a police division spokesman didn’t return an e-mail requesting further particulars.
A spokesman for the state Public Defender’s Workplace couldn’t reveal Thursday whether or not a public defender had been appointed for the alleged gunman, and the lawyer who represented him in a earlier case didn’t instantly reply to voicemail messages asking in the event that they have been representing him. The person’s relations and former employers additionally didn’t instantly reply to voicemail messages.
In a podcast posted Tuesday, a person who recognized himself with the identical title and date of start because the alleged gunman stated he was in Madison and, in a profanity-laced speech, stated he would burn the system “with love” as a result of it’s corrupt. The person complained about the way in which he was handled by the courts, and spoke of promoting weapons illegally, working in gun outlets with explosives and machine weapons, making an attempt suicide and coping with post-traumatic stress dysfunction. He additionally stated that he desires to proceed residing.
“Capitol Police bought the state of affairs underneath management and it was over,” Evers advised reporters on Thursday.
He declined to touch upon safety modifications that is likely to be made to him or the Capitol.
“I by no means talked about what my safety group was doing or what they have been planning on doing,” Evers stated. “However any time one thing like this occurs, they clearly reevaluate.”
This incident is the most recent in a collection of violent threats in opposition to authorities officers.
Evers, a Democrat, was on the hit record of a gunman suspected of taking pictures and killing a retired district choose in his Wisconsin dwelling in 2022. Others on that record embody Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell. Whitmer was the goal of a kidnapping plot in 2020.
No fast modifications are deliberate for safety on the Capitol or for the governor, Warrick stated. The general public has free admission to the Capitol Constructing each day from 8 a.m. to six p.m. There aren’t any metallic detectors.