A 21-year-old man with a firearm was arrested Tuesday near Union Station on Capitol Hill in gun-controlled Washington DC.
ABC News identified the suspect as Ahmir Lavon Merrell.
NBC 4 reported that Merrell “is a registered sex offender in Georgia.”
Around 12:30 p.m., police were alerted that there was a man with long gun in a park near Union Station. They responded and ordered Merrell to drop the weapon, then tased him after he refused to comply.
Police do not believe there is any larger threat to the public.
Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said it is believed the Merrell is “dealing with some mental health issues.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
