By Paul Duggan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 6, 2008

U.S. Capitol Police said they found a hand grenade, two loaded firearms and other "items of concern" in a Jeep Cherokee driven by a 27-year-old man who was arrested yesterday morning near the Library of Congress.

The suspect, identified as Christopher S. Timmons, of Orange, Va., was arrested at Second Street and Independence Avenue SE and charged with carrying a concealed dangerous weapon, said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a Capitol Police spokeswoman. There might be additional charges, she said.

Asked whether the grenade was live, Schneider said explosives technicians described it to her as "not inert." She said the grenade was placed in a bomb-carrying vehicle and taken to an explosives disposal site in Quantico.

Police also found a loaded assault rifle, a loaded pistol, a knife and numerous rounds of ammunition in the Jeep, Schneider said. It is unclear what Timmons's intentions were.

Schneider said in a statement that Timmons approached a Capitol police officer at Second and Independence about 10:45 a.m. and asked for directions. "The officer observed a rifle case in the vehicle with a rifle inside of it," Schneider said in a statement.

After Timmons was ordered out of the vehicle, "a perimeter was established with several temporary street closures in the immediate area" while officers searched the Jeep. No one was injured in the incident, police said.

In January, a Virginia man was arrested near the Capitol after authorities caught him with a shotgun and a sword in the 300 block of First Street NE. They later found what they described as a stash of explosives in his pickup.

That man, Michael S. Gorbey, was convicted on 14 charges, including one of attempting to make and possess a weapon of mass destruction. He was sentenced last month to 22 years in prison.