California Man Arrested After Driving 10-Foot Guillotine to U.S. Capitol

A California man drove roughly 2,500 miles across the country with a 10-foot wooden guillotine standing upright in the bed of his pickup truck, parking it illegally on the street separating the U.S. Capitol from the Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon. U.S. Capitol Police arrested him within minutes of spotting the vehicle, seizing what officers determined was a fully functional execution device with a metal blade.

Philan-Tam-Duy Le, 35, of Julian, California, was taken into custody just after 3 p.m. Tuesday in the 100 block of East Capitol Street, a narrow roadway steps from both the Capitol building and the Supreme Court, according to a news release from U.S. Capitol Police. Officers noticed the truck parked illegally and found the guillotine towering above the truck bed. Le was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon and appeared in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday, where he pleaded not guilty, according to court records reviewed by the Associated Press. A status hearing has been set for September 24, according to court records.

Congress was in recess when the truck was discovered, meaning few if any lawmakers were on the grounds. Capitol Police said investigators were still working to determine why Le made the cross-country trip.

Carrying a dangerous weapon is a felony in the District, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine, under D.C. Code § 22-4504. The charge does not require prosecutors to show that Le intended to use the guillotine against a specific person, only that he possessed a weapon capable of causing serious injury.

What the affidavit describes

According to the charging affidavit, an officer asked Le whether the device was fully operational. He answered that it was "the real deal." He told investigators he "wasn't there for any specific reason" and "didn't have issues with specific members of Congress," according to the affidavit cited in reporting on the case.

"The real deal."

Investigators also reviewed an Instagram account that appears to belong to Le, which posted a video captioned "Guillotine adventures" and "Capital hill next" on Tuesday afternoon, before the arrest. In the video, the person discusses building the device as a response to "unelected officials making all the decisions" and describes it as "strictly for self-defense purposes," according to the affidavit.

A guillotine is the latest unusual object found near the Capitol

The incident is the newest entry in a run of unusual and sometimes armed encounters on Capitol grounds this year. In February, an 18-year-old was arrested after rushing toward the building's Lower West Terrace with a loaded shotgun; officers later found a Kevlar helmet and gas mask in his vehicle. Screeners at the Capitol Visitor Center separately stopped a man carrying a machete and three additional knives.

Those episodes have unfolded against a broader rise in threats tracked by the department's Threat Assessment Section, which investigates concerning statements, behaviors and communications directed at members of Congress, their families, staff and the Capitol complex. Cases climbed to 14,938 in 2025, up from 9,474 in 2024 and 8,008 in 2023 — the third consecutive annual increase, according to U.S. Capitol Police's own year-end accounting. The department has also expanded its outreach to local police nationwide, more than tripling its formal information-sharing agreements with outside law enforcement agencies, from roughly 115 departments to more than 350, over the same period, according to the department.

"While security on Capitol Grounds has already improved, we have been strengthening our partnerships with law enforcement agencies across the country to keep the Members of Congress safe when they are away from Capitol Hill," Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan said of the broader threat trend.

Who Le is, according to his family

Le's older brother, Kelvin Le, a production planner in Vista, California, told reporters the guillotine was meant as a "symbol of disapproval" rather than a threat against any individual. He said his brother "didn't like to say what specific government policies he is against" but was broadly disillusioned with American politics, disliking both major parties as well as President Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom, according to an account of the family's comments carried by the Los Angeles Times. Kelvin Le said he was surprised by the arrest and did not believe his brother intended to hurt anyone.

Family members described Le as someone who grew up in Carlsbad, California, worked for a time as a cook at a Vietnamese restaurant in Las Vegas, and has lived in Julian — a small mountain town in eastern San Diego County — for several years, supporting himself through tattoo artistry and making earrings and other piercings. Kelvin Le called his brother "a free spirit" and "a man who built a lot of things with his hands," adding that he enjoyed long, solitary road trips.

What happens next

No one was injured in the encounter, and Le has not been accused of threatening a specific lawmaker or official. Capitol Police said their review of his background and motivation for the cross-country trip was continuing even after the arraignment. His next scheduled court date is the September 24 status hearing, where prosecutors are expected to indicate whether the felony weapons count will stand alone or whether additional charges will follow once the background review is complete.

For now, the guillotine itself sits in U.S. Capitol Police evidence custody, photographed by officers still parked in the truck bed where they found it — a full-scale, hand-built execution device that made it from a small California mountain town to the front steps of the nation's legislature before anyone stopped to ask why.