A California man was arrested Monday after U.S. Capitol Police allegedly found him in a pickup truck outside Democratic National Committee headquarters with multiple weapons, including a bayonet and a machete.
Donald Craighead, 44, of Oceanside, California, was taken into custody without incident shortly after midnight for possession of prohibited weapons, the agency said in a statement.
“This is good police work plain and simple,” Chief Tom Manger said, according to the statement. “We applaud the officers’ keen observation and the teamwork that resulted in this arrest.”
An officer with the Special Operation Division was on patrol overnight when he noticed a suspicious Dodge Dakota pickup outfitted with a swastika and other white supremacist symbols, the incident report states.
The truck was missing a license plate that had been substituted by a picture of an American flag.
After pulling over the truck in the 500 block of South Capitol Street Southwest, officers noticed the bayonet and machete, which are illegal in Washington, D.C., according to the Capitol Police.
Craighead told authorities he was “on patrol” and began talking about white supremacist ideology, the statement said.
An investigation is continuing, and the suspect remains jailed.
It was unclear if Craighead had been planning to participate in any protests in the nation’s capital, or if he had any ties to extremism, the Capitol Police said in its statement.
Law enforcement officials have revealed a plan to reinstall the protective fence that surrounded the U.S. Capitol in the months following the Jan. 6 insurrection over concerns about a Sept. 18 rally to demand justice for the hundreds of suspects charged with participating in the riot.
Last week, the FBI released new surveillance footage of an unidentified suspect who planted pipe bombs outside the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees the night before supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.
Back in March, a Texas man was arrested after U.S. Secret Service agents found him parked near the Washington, D.C., home of Vice President Kamala Harris with a rifle and large-capacity ammunition inside his car.
Harris and the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, had not yet moved into the home due to ongoing renovations and were never in any danger.
This is a developing story. Please stay with AJC.com for the latest updates.
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