The 1998 United States Capitol shooting occurred on July 24, 1998, when Russell Eugene Weston Jr. entered the Capitol and fatally shot United States Capitol Police officers Jacob Chestnut and Detective John Gibson.
Gibson died during surgery at MedStar Washington Hospital Center; Chestnut died at George Washington University Hospital. Weston's exact motives are unknown, but he had expressed strong distrust of the federal government of the United States; he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia six years before the attack. Weston was later charged on July 26 for the murder of two U.S. Capitol Police officers during the shooting rampage. , Weston remained in a mental institution.
Shooting
On the day of the shooting, Officer Chestnut and an unarmed civilian security aide were assigned to operate the X-ray machine and magnetometer at the Document Door entrance located on the East Front of the Capitol, which was open only to Members of Congress and their staff. Detective Gibson was assigned to the dignitary protection detail of then House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-TX) and was in his suite of offices near this door. Weston, armed with a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson six-shot revolver, entered the Document Door at 3:40 p.m. At the same time, Officer Chestnut was providing directions to a tourist and his son. Weston walked through the metal detector, setting off the alarm. Chestnut requested he go back through the detector. Weston suddenly produced the gun and without warning, shot Chestnut in the back of the head at point-blank range. At this time, Officer Douglas McMillan, normally working outside the Capitol, was nearby retrieving keys to get a wheelchair for a tourist. Officer McMillan immediately returned fire as Weston shot Chestnut, causing Weston to shoot toward McMillan, wounding him. Weston then ran away from McMillan, turning into the first nearby open door he found. McMillan could not shoot at Weston without risking hitting the many civilians in the immediate area. According to witnesses, Weston turned down a short corridor. He pushed through a door that led to a group of offices used by senior Republican representatives, including then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay and Representative Dennis Hastert, future Speaker of the House and a close protégé of then Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Upon hearing the gunfire, Detective Gibson, who was in plain clothes, told the office staff to hide under their desks. Weston entered the office and quickly shot Gibson. Mortally wounded, Gibson returned fire, shooting Weston four times. Two other officers arrested Weston in the same office. Senator Bill Frist, a heart surgeon who had been presiding on the Senate floor just before the shooting, resuscitated the gunman and accompanied him to D.C. General Hospital.
Angela Dickerson, a tourist, was grazed on her face and shoulder by shrapnel from a marble wall as McMillan's rounds impacted the wall while he was attempting to hit the fleeing Weston. She was treated for her injuries and released.
Aftermath
Officers Chestnut and Gibson were killed in the attack. Both officers received the tribute of lying in honor in the United States Capitol rotunda. They were the first police officers, and Chestnut was the first African American, to receive the honor.
In 1999, Weston was found incompetent to stand trial due to mental illness; he had a history of schizophrenia and had stopped taking his medication. A judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered that he be treated with antipsychotic medication without his consent in 2001, and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the decision. In 2004, the court determined that Weston still was not competent to be tried, despite ongoing treatment, and suspended but did not dismiss the criminal charges against him. Weston was known to the United States Secret Service before the incident as a person who had threatened the President of the United States.