U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) on Thursday arrested a Capitol Hill staffer for allegedly bringing a handgun into a House office building, which was reportedly discovered during an X-ray of the staffer’s bag, according to CBS News.
USCP said in a press release that "This morning at approximately 7:40 am, our officers in the Longworth Building spotted the image of a handgun in a bag on the x-ray screen. The man was tracked down four minutes later and arrested."
The Capitol Police briefly imposed a nine-minute lockdown at the time, telling workers in the building to remain in their offices with doors and windows locked, or to hide or seek cover if they were in a public space, according to ABC News.
They added that "The owner of the bag was identified as 57-year-old Jeffrey Allsbrooks (02-20-1964), a staffer with the House Chief Administrative Office. Allsbrooks told our officers he forgot the gun was in the bag. We are charging him with Carrying a Pistol without a License."
According to CBS, it’s currently unclear why Allsbrooks wasn’t halted at the security checkpoint and had to be tracked down four minutes later.
USCP states that "This case remains under investigation and the Department is looking into what happened before, during and after those four minutes."
Security has been high around the Capitol since the violent protest on Jan. 6. Last April, one officer died and another was injured after a car rammed into a barricade outside the building, and a few months later in August a man was arrested after claiming to have explosives near the Capitol.