United States Capitol Police have identified the man arrested Wednesday after allegedly trying to light a car on fire while President-elect Donald Trump was paying his respects to former President Jimmy Carter, who was lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C.
Virginia man Adrian J. Hinton, 35, is the suspect, police announced on X Thursday morning.
He faces charges of unlawful activities after allegedly putting a flaming bag on top of a car near the Grant Memorial at around 5:30 p.m.
The bag burned out without igniting anything else, authorities said.
It was packed with accelerants and Hinton’s vehicle had been spray-painted, according to Capitol Police.
Hinton’s arrest was one of two threatening incidents at the Capitol Wednesday, when Trump, lawmakers and thousands of Americans lined up to pay their respects to Carter.
Police also apprehended a man who, about three hours earlier, allegedly arrived at the Capitol with an array of knives, including a machete that he tried to get through a security checkpoint with an X-ray machine at the Capitol Visitor Center.
Mel J. Horne, 44, faces multiple counts of carrying a dangerous weapon.
Capitol Police said they did not believe the two incidents were connected. Neither arrest interrupted the service for Carter.
“Twice today our officers stopped a man who could have been a danger to the Capitol Hill community,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said in a statement. “This vigilance is critical during this time of heightened security.”
Carter was scheduled to lie in state from 7:30 p.m. Tuesday until 7 a.m. Thursday.
The former president, who was the 39th man to hold the office, died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.