U.S. Capitol police arrested a 59-year-old Camden, S.C., man Wednesday as he tried to enter a congressional office building with a loaded 9mm Ruger handgun in his bag.
Officers discovered the weapon as they stopped Ronald William Prestage at about 9:20 a.m. as part of a routine search of visitors at the Rotunda entrance of the Cannon building
He was charged with carrying a pistol without a license and taken to the Central Cell Block, a facility of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department.
The State newspaper, a McClatchy publication in Columbia, S.C., reported that Prestage is a veterinarian, hog farmer, and president of Prestage Farms in Camden.
Wednesday’s incident was the second time in five days that police arrested someone trying to carry a weapon into the Cannon Building. Ray Lee Shucard, press secretary for Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., was charged with a single count of possessing a gun outside a home or office after his bag was searched.
Court document said that police found an unloaded 9 mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun and a magazine containing nine hollow- point bullets.
Shucard’s attorney told The Washington Post that his client inadvertently brought the weapon to the congressional office building.
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