WASHINGTON (AP) — United States Capitol Police on Tuesday arrested a California man with what they said was a guillotine in the bed of a pickup truck parked near the U.S. Capitol complex.
Police detained 35-year-old Philan-Tam-Duy Le of Julian, California, shortly after 3 p.m., when the truck he was driving containing the device was illegally parked east of the Capitol grounds, Capitol police said.
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Officers said they were investigating why the suspect, who drove from California, had made the trip and why he was transporting it.
A guillotine is an instrument for administering capital punishment by beheading and consists of a heavy blade mounted on a tall wooden frame. It was invented in late-18th Century France and became a symbol of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
