Murder In The House

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Not so long ago, anyone at all could walk up to the Capitol, open a door and wander pretty much at will. Visitors have long needed a pass to enter the House or Senate chamber, but it was only after 1983, when a bomb when off on the Senate side, that certain corridors to the leadership offices were cordoned off, magnetometers set up at the entrances, building passes required for employees and reporters, anti-terrorist planters installed in the parking lots, streets near the Russell Office Building closed off and sweeps by bomb-sniffing dogs ordered. There have been proposals every so often to tighten security at such an obvious target; for instance, to close the Capitol plaza to the public and install a wrought-iron fence around the building's 130-acre grounds, like the one that encircles the White House. But such measures have always been voted down in favor of maintaining the informality of access.

"Some of our technology goes back to 1971," said Capitol Police spokesman Sergeant Dan Nichols after an in-depth security study in 1996. "Maintenance is a problem. Finding parts is a problem. It was considered to be an emergency." A supplemental appropriations bill, passed earlier this year, included $20 million for improved Capitol perimeter security. But it is unlikely any of that would have ensured that Weston would be blocked. In the hours after the shooting, lawmakers were united in their determination not to shut down access in response to the incident. Late that night Nichols announced that the Capitol would be open for tours and business as usual the following morning. "We don't want to dissuade anyone from coming to the nation's capital, to experience this great building or to have access to their government."

By 6 p.m. Friday, the flag flying over the Capitol was lowered to half-staff. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Florida Senator Connie Mack visited Gibson's family at the hospital and stopped at the Chestnuts' home to see the officer's wife and children. Gingrich told them their father was a hero. But tragedy did not distract some politicians from the opportunities at hand: by 6:30, staff members for New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli were distributing a press release to reporters calling for tighter gun control. Weston, after emergency surgery during the night, lapsed into a coma and was placed on a ventilator. On Saturday morning doctors gave him a fifty-fifty chance of surviving. He was charged with the murder of two federal police officers, a death-penalty crime. Police and FBI agents blocked access to the Weston home in Valmeyer, and the phone was disconnected.

--Reported by James Carney, Chandrani Ghosh and J.F.O. McAllister/Washington, Julie Grace/Valmeyer and Pat Dawson/Rimini