House Staffer Carrying Gun Arrested In Capitol Office Building: Police

WASHINGTON, DC — A congressional staff member was arrested Thursday morning after bringing a handgun into the Longworth House Office Building, according to the U.S. Capitol Police.

At about 7:40 a.m., police officers spotted the image of a handgun in a bag on the x-ray screen. The staff member, Jeffrey Allsbrooks, 57, was tracked down four minutes later and arrested, according to the Capitol Police.

Allsbrooks, who works in the House Chief Administrative Office, told Capitol Police that he forgot the gun was in the bag. He was charged with carrying a pistol without a license.

The House Chief Administrative Office is a non-partisan office that helps congressional officers with day-to-day operations. A security alert was issued for the Longworth building due to police activity, but police issued an all-clear shortly after, NBC News reported.

The Capitol Police said the case remains under investigation and the department is looking into what happened during the four minutes after Allsbrooks passed security with the handgun.

The brief lockdown occurred on the day that President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak at the Capitol in honor of former Sen. Robert Dole, who died Sunday at 98. Dole will lie in state from noon until 8 p.m., although because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no public viewing.

Capitol Police have been on high alert following a year marked by security breaches and deadly attacks at the Capitol, including the Jan. 6 insurrection.

New security measures outside the U.S. House chamber prevented a Republican lawmaker from bringing a gun onto the House floor on Jan. 21, two weeks after the insurrection. Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) set off the metal detectors while trying to enter the House floor, HuffPost reported.

Magnetometers were installed outside the House floor in the days after the violent attack on the Capitol in which insurrectionists breached both the House and Senate chambers.

Congressional staff, visitors, media and all other entrants are scanned at every single external door of the Capitol and office buildings. But lawmakers get to bypass those perimeter checkpoints, stepping around the machines. In January, the magnetometers were set up outside the House floor for lawmakers to pass through.

Several Republican members of Congress protested the new security systems implemented at the Capitol. "This is political correctness run amok," Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) said in response to the new security measures.