Washington, D.C. , 18 February (H.S.): United States Capitol Police thwarted a potential catastrophe on Tuesday, apprehending an 18-year-old male suspect without incident mere moments after he emerged from a white Mercedes SUV and charged toward the congressional bastion wielding a loaded shotgun, authorities confirmed during a tense midday briefing.

USCP Chief Michael Sullivan detailed that the individual, attired in a tactical vest replete with matching gloves, alighted from his vehicle proximate to the Capitol shortly after noon before bolting purposefully toward the edifice enshrining America’s legislative nerve center, prompting officers to issue peremptory directives to jettison the weapon—which he promptly complied with, averting any effusion of violence.

Investigators later uncovered ancillary armaments in the SUV, encompassing a Kevlar helmet and gas mask, though the youth’s animus remains shrouded pending forensic interrogation, with no collateral injuries sustained and the perimeter expeditiously secured.

This unnerving incursion transpired scant weeks after a lethal October 2025 National Guard ambush adjacent to the White House—wherein one sentinel perished and another languished wounded—yet Sullivan reaffirmed steadfast operational readiness for President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address slated imminently within the Capitol, underscoring that “this alters naught in our posture; we stand primed for that pivotal evening.”

As federal sleuths dissect the interloper’s trajectory amid perennial sentinels safeguarding democratic citadels, the episode reverberates disquiet over ingress vulnerabilities at this paramount polity epicenter.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar