Chestnut, Jacobs, FO

On Roads, Awe Instead of AngerWashington area drivers decided to take traffic jams and delays in stride Thursday as they pulled onto the shoulders of busy interstates and sat patiently on blocked city streets to watch the cortege roll by.
 

Paying Respects to the Two Who Paid the Price Public mourning over the slayings of two U.S. Capitol Police officers turned to private sorrow Wednesday as family, friends and colleagues of slain Detective John M. Gibson remembered him in silent prayer.
 

Officers' Funeral Processions Likely to Snarl Area TrafficThe funeral procession for slain U.S. Capitol Police Detective John M. Gibson will be at least 12 miles long as it travels a 35-mile route from Prince William County to Arlington National Cemetery.
 

Therapists to Evaluate Suspect in Hill KillingsAttorneys for Capitol gunman Russell Eugene Weston Jr. have won court approval to have him meet with a psychiatrist and psychologist at D.C. General Hospital, where he is recovering from bullet wounds.
 

Surviving Victim Describes Capitol ShootingAngela Dickerson broke her silence Thursday, recounting the fateful visit to the U.S. Capitol that transformed her from anonymous tourist to bit player in history.
 

Murder Charges Filed in Capitol Rampage

Russell Eugene Weston Jr., a former mental patient from Montana, was charged yesterday with murdering two U.S. Capitol Police officers during a rampage in the Capitol building that allegedly began when Weston walked up behind an officer and shot him point-blank in the back of the head.
 

Law enforcement sources and court documents added chilling new details yesterday about the Friday afternoon killings of Jacob J. Chestnut, 58, and John M. Gibson, 42, both 18-year veterans of the force. They said that after bursting through a Capitol security checkpoint and shooting Chestnut, Weston chased a screaming woman down a hallway until he was confronted by Gibson, who pushed the woman out of harm's way and exchanged deadly gunfire with the intruder.
 

Weston, 41, slipped into unconsciousness and was downgraded early yesterday from stable to critical condition after surgery Friday at D.C. General Hospital. Doctors said he had a "50-50" chance of survival. He was ordered held without bond yesterday during a brief hearing in D.C. Superior Court.
 

An FBI agent's affidavit filed in court says Gibson and another officer -- identified by law enforcement sources as Douglas B. McMillan -- fired at Weston several times. Angela Dickerson, a 24-year-old employee of a Virginia furniture store, was wounded by stray gunfire. She was released yesterday from George Washington University Medical Center.
 

Meanwhile, official Washington paused yesterday to pay tribute to the pair of officers who died in service to their government, as the nation's leaders vowed that the domed symbol of American democracy would remain open and accessible to the public. The Capitol did reopen yesterday, with flags at half staff and the Capitol Police force guarding the doors as usual.
 

"I want to emphasize that this building is the keystone of freedom, that it is open to the people because it is the people's building," said House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "No terrorist, no deranged person, no act of violence will block us from preserving our freedom and keeping this building open to people from all over the world."
 

President Clinton yesterday praised the two men as heroes who "laid down their lives for their friends, their co-workers and their fellow citizens," and he reminded the country that 79 other law enforcement officers have been killed this year. "Every American should be grateful to them for the freedom and the security they guard with their lives," Clinton said.
 

Friday's incident has brought new attention to the tricky security balance between ensuring public access and protecting public officials, and several members of Congress said it demonstrated the need for a long-delayed $125 million visitor's center that could help security officers control access to the Capitol complex.
 

But most observers agreed there was little the Capitol Police could have done to stop a determined and apparently deranged gunman like Weston, who had complained to neighbors in Rimini, Mont., that the government was using a satellite dish to spy on him. He once accused his frail 86-year-old landlady of assault and battery, and allegedly harassed several county and state officials when they refused to press charges against her.
 

Weston spent the last several years in the Montana backwoods, living on disability benefits in a cabin 40 miles from the tiny shack where the reclusive Theodore Kaczynski built his bombs. In early 1996, law enforcement sources said, he was interviewed by the Secret Service about unusual comments he had made about President Clinton and delusional letters he had written about the federal government.
 

Weston was entered into the Secret Service's computer files as a potential low-level threat, but the agency did not contact other law enforcement agencies about Weston and had no further contact with him, the sources said. "The volume of people that the Secret Service checks out and never comes into contact with again is just unbelievable," one law enforcement official said.
 

In the fall of 1996, Montana officials said, a judge committed Weston to a state mental hospital for evaluation after he threatened a Helena resident. He was released after 52 days, when a medical team concluded that he no longer posed a danger. But on Thursday, after he reportedly shot his father's cats, he allegedly stole his father's old Smith & Wesson revolver and pointed his red Chevrolet pickup truck toward Washington.
 

In Valmeyer, Ill., the riverside town where Weston grew up, the Rev. Robin Keating read a statement from Weston's family yesterday apologizing profusely for the deaths of the officers. "It is with great sorrow that we speak today -- sorrow for the families that lost their loved ones, sorrow for the children that lost their daddies," the statement says. "Our apologies to the nation as a whole, for the trauma our son has caused."
 

An affidavit signed by FBI Special Agent Armin Showalter and filed in D.C. Superior Court yesterday recaps the horrifying moments after Weston allegedly walked into the Document Room Door on the House side of the Capitol at 3:40 p.m. Friday. Law enforcement sources said security videotapes that captured some of the incident provide vivid images of the grisly scene.
 

Chestnut was standing with his back toward a metal detector, writing some directions for a father and son who had just finished a tour of the Capitol, according to one law enforcement source who watched the videotape.
 

Weston allegedly walked through the detector, setting it off, then immediately pointed his gun at the back of Chestnut's head and shot before the officer had a chance to take action. Chestnut collapsed in front of the tourist and his 15-year-old son, who was soaked in the fallen officer's blood, according to the source.
 

"He was shot without warning," said Sgt. Dan Nichols, a Capitol Police spokesman.
 

As congressional aides and tourists scrambled for cover, Officer McMillan fired back at Weston, authorities said. Dickerson, a visitor who was standing nearby, was shot in the face and shoulder by a stray bullet, but officials said they have not determined who shot her.
 

"I don't really consider myself a hero," said McMillan, who was working near Chestnut's station Friday and said he witnessed his killing. He declined further comment.
 

Weston ran past them, following an unidentified female bystander who was running for cover toward a door that reads "Private Entrance" leading to the majority whip's suite. Inside, Gibson yelled for DeLay and his staff to take cover under desks and other furniture. DeLay yesterday said he and several staff members hid in his private bathroom and locked the door.
 

Before Gibson was able to draw his gun, the woman, with Weston behind her, appeared in the doorway. Gibson "pushed her away to safety," and Weston shot him once in the chest, Nichols said. Gibson then grabbed his own gun and shot Weston in the legs.
 

While the two men fired more shots at each other -- one witness said there were at least eight or 10 rounds -- the woman scrambled frantically in the hallway from closed door to closed door, pleading for someone to help her. Witnesses told police they heard her yelling, "Help! Help! Help!" but they were too afraid to open doors for her, sources said. Moments later, more Capitol Police officers arrived on the scene and arrested Weston, who had "additional ammunition" for his six-shot revolver in his pocket, according to the FBI affidavit.
 

"It was just a mess," one police source said. "Chestnut was executed, and Gibson saved everybody's lives in that office. If it wasn't for his fast thinking, I'd hate to think of what could have happened in that office."
 

A visibly moved DeLay met with reporters yesterday, recalling Chestnut as "a great man and a great patriot" and Gibson as "quite simply the finest man I've ever known." He said Chestnut, a father of five and a grandfather of five, was a Vietnam veteran who greeted everyone with a smile. He said Gibson, a Massachusetts native and Boston Bruins fan who worked as his personal security detail, had become a virtual member of his family.
 

"He tried to teach me hockey," DeLay said, his voice breaking. "I never did understand hockey."
 

Weston, who received CPR from Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and a D.C. paramedic shortly after the incident, has undergone surgery twice for gunshot wounds to the torso, buttocks and legs, and his surgeon, Paul Oriaifo, said he has a "50-50" chance of survival. Neither Weston nor the slain officers was wearing a bulletproof vest, law enforcement sources said.
 

Authorities charged Weston under a federal statute that covers cases in which federal law enforcement officers are slain during performance of their official duties. The case will be moved on Monday from the local court to federal court, which was closed yesterday. Attorney General Janet Reno has the option of seeking the death penalty, but a Justice Department spokeswoman said discussions of the question have not yet begun.
 

The last federal execution took place in 1963, although more than a dozen federal prisoners are on death row, including Timothy J. McVeigh, who was convicted in the April 1995 bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City. Prosecutors have been especially reluctant to seek the death penalty for federal offenses in the District, where voters overwhelmingly rejected a local version of the law in a 1992 referendum.
 

The Capitol Police force has worked almost round-the-clock on the investigation, along with officers from the FBI, D.C. police and other law enforcement agencies. The arrest warrant for Weston was signed at 2 a.m. yesterday, and federal agents executed a search warrant for Weston's shack yesterday afternoon. Other agents have been interviewing neighbors and family members in Illinois and Montana and more than 80 witnesses in Washington.
 

It has been a horrible two days for the 1,295-member Capitol force, which had had only one other casualty in its 170-year history, an accidental shooting death during a 1984 training exercise. A visibly exhausted Nichols said yesterday at a news conference that officers are taking solace in the support they have received from the public, and in the fact that they succeeded in protecting the members of Congress.
 

"It's been a trying couple of days for us," Nichols said as he choked back tears. "It's a difficult time, and the officers are going to rely on each other. . . . But the gunman didn't get very far into the building, and that was our intention."
 

Funerals for the officers have not been scheduled, but DeLay said members of Congress hope to honor them with a joint resolution tomorrow and a memorial service on Tuesday. Congress also has created a memorial fund for the families of the slain officers, and donations can be sent to the U.S. Capitol Police Memorial Fund, Washington, D.C. 20510.
 

Nichols also said the Capitol Police had received many requests from visitors wanting to know if they could leave flowers on the House steps in honor of the fallen officers. They certainly could, he said. And yesterday, they did.
 

U.S. Leaders Honor Officers
Tuesday, July 28, 1998

In mournful tribute beneath
the Capitol dome, President Clinton praised two slain police officers Tuesday as heroes whose sacrifice ``consecrated this house of freedom.'' Lawmakers and thousands of visitors joined in a daylong outpouring of sympathy.
 

Jacob J. Chestnut and John Gibson, killed last Friday by a Capitol intruder, ``died in duty to the very freedom that all of us cherish,'' said House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
 

The widows, children and other relatives of the slain men were seated for the memorial service, a few feet from the flag-draped coffins bearing the remains of their loved ones. All others in attendance stood.
 

Customarily, only presidents, members of Congress and military commanders are permitted to lie in the Rotunda. Congress made an exception in the case of the two fallen officers, and by early morning, hundreds of people were in line outside the Capitol waiting to pay their respects.
 

Some wept, some saluted, others simply stared at the caskets as the long line filed slowly up the Capitol steps and into the soaring Rotunda where the coffins rested. An honor guard, four Capitol Police officers in dress blue uniforms, stood somber watch. Joining the mourners were delegations of law enforcement officials from across the nation. 

 

Chestnut and Gibson were shot Friday afternoon when a gunman burst into the Capitol with a .38-caliber handgun. Chestnut was shot without warning, according to an account provided by officials, while Gibson and the gunman both fell following a furious exchange of gunfire at close range. 

 

The suspect, Russell E. Weston Jr., 41, of Rimini, Mont., underwent surgery during the day for irrigation of his fractures. Hospital said he was in stable condition. Weston, who has a history of mental illness, has been charged with one count of killing federal officers, and faces a possible death penalty if convicted. 

 

A federal magistrate postponed Weston's initial appearance in court until Thursday in the hope that he will be well enough to make the trip then. 
 

The memorial service was unprecedented -- the nation's political leadership gathered in one of the most hallowed rooms in the land to mourn not a president or a general, but two men unknown outside their own communities.
 

Standing in a room graced with images of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other famous Americans, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said, ``Today we honor two men that should rightly be recognized in this hall of heroes. ... It's appropriate today that we honor these two men who did their job, who stood the ground and defended freedom.''
 

In his remarks at the brief ceremony, Clinton paid tribute to the ``quiet courage and uncommon bravery'' exhibited by Chestnut, Gibson and so many other police officers who are struck down in the line of duty.
 

The two men killed last Friday, he said: ``in doing their duty they saved lives, they consecrated this house of freedom and they fulfilled our Lord's definition of a good life. They loved justice, they did mercy, now and forever, they walk humbly with their God.''


For the second straight day, the House canceled its legislative business out of respect for the two men who died while at their posts in the Capitol.


 

``In our hearts and in our minds, their heroism can never be forgotten,'' said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., one of several lawmakers to speak of the two men in the House during the day.

 

``Who could ever imagine a shooting in the nation's Capitol, a shrine to liberty and justice for all,'' added Rep. Constance Morella, R-Md.

 

Across the Capitol, Sen. Ben Nighthorse
Campbell, R-Colo., pinned a Capitol policeman's patch to his jacket -- a gift, he said, from Gibson a few weeks ago.

 

The Rotunda was closed to the public for a while at midday to permit members of Congress to view the caskets. Gingrich, Democratic leader Dick Gephardt and House GOP Whip Tom DeLay, his wife and daughter formed a receiving line for fellow lawmakers. Gibson had served as DeLay's bodyguard.

 

The scene in the Capitol's Rotunda was unprecedented as powerful lawmakers and tourists alike came to pay their respects to Chestnut and Gibson.

 

First inside were Jeffrey Barrow, 13, and his father, Don, a locksmith from Atlanta, who had been in the Capitol Friday when the shooting broke out.

 

``I wanted to come and pay respects,'' said the boy. ``I've been asking myself why would he want to kill them. They didn't do anything to him.''
 

Many uniformed police officers also filed past, some of them wiping
away tears, as the long, hot day wore on.


 

Chestnut, who was 58, and Gibson, 42, will be buried later in the week at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Slain Officers' Coffins to Lie in Capitol

Monday, July 27, 1998
 

The bodies of U.S. Capitol Police officers Jacob J. Chestnut and John M. Gibson will lie tomorrow in the majestic Rotunda of the building where they gave their lives, a farewell usually reserved for the nation's revered leaders.

 

The two policemen slain Friday will lie at the Capitol Rotunda throughout the day, an unprecedented honor for the men who died defending tourists and elected representatives. The public will be admitted to pay tribute to the officers from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m., except for a brief period beginning at 3 p.m. when members of the Capitol Police, the officers' families and Congress will attend a private ceremony. President Clinton and Vice President Gore also plan to attend.

 

Yesterday, the private and public families shattered by the violence struggled slowly to deal with the aftermath of Friday's violence. Also yesterday, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Gary L. Abrecht offered his first public comments; authorities continued to search for clues to the suspect's possible motive; and visitors to the Capitol placed still more flowers on the steps as an expression of their grief.

 

Meanwhile, Russell Eugene Weston Jr., 41, charged with killing the two officers when he burst into the Capitol on a languid Friday afternoon, was upgraded from critical condition to serious condition by officials at D.C. General Hospital.

 

Weston, a drifter with unusual suspicions, barged through a metal detector Friday and allegedly executed Chestnut, 58, without warning, and then killed Gibson, 42, in a gunfight.

 

Law enforcement sources said yesterday that Weston emptied his six-chamber .38-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol; in return, he was wounded in the torso, arms, buttocks and thigh.

 

Weston is under arrest, held without bond on two federal murder charges, as he lies under heavy guard in the locked ward of the hospital. Charges against him, filed Saturday in D.C. Superior Court, likely will be transferred today to U.S. District Court. The federal court was closed on Saturday, so prosecutors secured an order in D.C. Superior Court to keep Weston in custody.

 

Law enforcement sources said the prosecution team already is bracing for a possible insanity defense or claim of incompetency, as new details emerged of Weston's behavioral history, including a 1996 visit by Weston to Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in which he claimed he was a clone and President John F. Kennedy's son.

 

Congress is expected to reconvene today with a tribute to the officers. Both houses are to approve the public viewing of the officers' caskets in the Rotunda, an honor until now afforded only 27 people in the nation's history. Four were unknown soldiers; all the others were presidents, generals, members of Congress or other dignitaries.

 

Separate funerals for the men are set for Thursday and Friday, each including a motorcade past the Capitol.

 

"My thoughts and prayers go out to the families," said Abrecht, who has met privately with the families. "They were in a great state of grief."

 

The police chief said Gibson will be buried on Thursday in Lake Ridge. Chestnut, an Air Force veteran, will be interred the following day at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Abrecht said his review of the incident convinced him "our people did exactly what they should have done. They were heroic in every way." Abrecht, speaking later at a brief news conference outside the Capitol, called his two officers "fallen heroes" and said he could not comprehend how their families were dealing with their deaths with such grace.

 

Abrecht recounted how, after the shootings, his own teenage daughter "came running up to me and threw her arms around me" in a scene he thought was being repeated in police families all across the nation.

 

"The past few days have been an extremely trying time for the United States Capitol Police," Abrecht said. "From the expressions of sympathy which have been pouring in to our department, it is evident that our loss and feelings of sadness are being shared by the United States Congress and the American public."

 

In a separate interview, Abrecht recalled that he would often "stop and chat with Chestnut; he was a wonderful, quiet professional police officer. He was steady and unruffleable." Abrecht said Chestnut had a "friendly but firm manner. He was excellent with the public."

 

Jonathan L. Arden, chief medical examiner of the District, said yesterday that autopsies of the two officers Friday night showed that "neither one of them had any significant chance of being able to survive his wounds."

 

"Unfortunately, there are some wounds that simply are not survivable," Arden said. He said Chestnut died of a gunshot wound to the head that penetrated the brain, and Gibson died from a wound to the abdomen with penetration of his aorta.

 

It is unclear whether Chestnut ever confronted his killer. According to law enforcement sources who have watched a security camera videotape, Chestnut was standing with his back to the metal detector, writing directions for a father and son, when Weston strode through the metal detector and immediately shot Chestnut in the back of the head.
 

Tourist Angela Dickerson, 24, who was escorting relatives on a Capitol tour Friday, also suffered gunshot wounds during the incident. She was discharged from the hospital Saturday.
 

A note saying "No Soliciting Please!" was taped to the front door of Dickerson's family home in Chantilly yesterday. Knocks at the door and calls to the home went unanswered.
 

Liz Lapham, 44, a neighbor who said she had spoken to Dickerson's father, said that he told her his daughter was "going to be okay. She's just really exhausted and resting," Lapham said. Dickerson, an interior designer, has been married for a year, Lapham said.
 

"It's really a tragedy that she was where she was," Lapham said. "They're overwhelmed by it."
 

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies continued to study Weston's life, seeking to understand what may have driven a man considered a harmless nut by neighbors in Illinois and Montana to such bloodshed.
 

Several hundred law enforcement officers are now working on the case in Illinois, Montana and Washington. Sources said they have executed search warrants at his parents' home in Valmeyer, Ill., and his shack in Rimini, Mont., an old mining community about 20 miles southwest of the state capital of Helena. They popped open the door to his mountain shack with a crowbar attached to a cable and sent in a remote-control robot to protect themselves from any possible booby traps. None was found.
 

They also found magazines and a stack of papers with Weston's diaries and other writings in the red Chevrolet pickup truck the suspect drove from Valmeyer to Washington on Thursday night, the sources said.
 

A top-ranking law enforcement source said agents searching the home of Weston's parents in Illinois were looking for writings in a sealed container that might show motive or premeditation.
 

Weston had come to official notice several times. Citing state laws protecting the confidentiality of medical records, an official at the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs declined to discuss the specifics of Weston's treatment at the psychiatric facility during a 53-day stay in late 1996. A court ordered what is known as an involuntary civil commitment for Weston because of repeated threats against Jefferson County law enforcement authorities stemming from a dispute he had with his elderly landlady in 1983.
 

Weston was discharged from the state hospital on Dec. 2, 1996, and arrangements were made to allow him to prepare his cabin in Rimini for winter and then return to the supervision of his parents in Waterloo, Ill.
 

In an interview yesterday at their home, Weston's parents said their son was diagnosed a decade ago as a paranoid schizophrenic.
 

"I don't know what you can do about someone like that," a source at a federal agency said. "If the doctors thought he was okay, how can anyone else predict he'll go off?"
 

Law enforcement sources also were studing the details of Weston's visit on July 29, 1996, to the Langley headquarters of the CIA.
 

According to a source familiar with a memorandum on the incident, Weston drove up to the main CIA gate off Route 123 and said he had information to report. The source said Weston "rambled on for several hours" to a security officer, explaining that he was the son of Kennedy, that he had been cloned at birth, that Clinton was a clone, that everyone was a clone. He also claimed that Clinton was responsible for the Kennedy assassination because Kennedy had stolen Clinton's girlfriend, Marilyn Monroe.
 

"He was clearly delusional, but he didn't make any threats," the source said. "If he had, we would have arrested him. But it was just, 'I'm a clone, Clinton's a clone, all God's children are clones.' He told a bunch of wild stories and drove off into the sunset."
 

Weston, who has told his neighbors he believes the government is watching him through satellite dishes, also told the security officer he received "special presidential programming through interactive television and radio."
 

Weston ended his visit by informing the officer that he would "report back in 10 or 15 years." He later sent two letters to the CIA.
 

The first letter, which was typed, informed the agency that "as timing reverse becomes more aphonic," he thought he should join the CIA. The second letter, which was handwritten and sent in May, complained that someone had stolen a time device that he had invented. It was signed: "Brigidier General Russell E. Weston."
 

Weston's previous actions could present difficulties for government prosecutors, who have charged him with two counts of murdering federal officers in the performance of their duties, charges that could carry the death penalty.
 

If Weston's attorneys question his competency to stand trial, a judge would have to find that he understands the nature of the proceedings and can assist in his own defense before the prosecution could proceed.
 

If Weston goes to trial, his attorneys might employ an insanity defense – that is, argue that he was not sane at the time of the attack and therefore did not know the wrongfulness of his actions.
 

"I know that if I were Weston's lawyer, I'd be thinking about an insanity defense," one law enforcement official said. "Clearly, it looks like that's what we're up against. ... But there's a big difference between 'crazy' in the vernacular and 'crazy' in the legal sense."
 

Weston's past activities and his alleged involvement in the Capitol shootings also have raised anew questions about how federal agencies determine what they consider dangerous behavior, and what they can do about it.
 

The Secret Service had a routine interview with Weston in the spring of 1996, after learning about comments and letters he had written about Clinton and the federal government. But the agency classified him as a "low-level threat" and did not notify other agencies, although it did keep his name on file. The CIA source said his agency briefed the Secret Service again after Weston's visit to Langley, but neither agency took any action.
 

"Obviously, this guy has problems, but lots of people have problems," one federal law enforcement source said yesterday. "Everyone has a constitutional right to be crazy."
 

The CIA official also said his agency's options were limited in dealing with a delusional but non-threatening individual: "It's not unusual to have strange people show up at our gate. We treat it seriously, but there's only so much you can do if laws aren't broken."
 

In their investigation of Friday's fatal gun battle, authorities have interviewed more than 80 witnesses in Washington, and believe more than 20 of them will be able to help them reconstruct the crime in court, sources said. They said authorities also plan to interview John Broder, a New York Times reporter who said he was approached by a man resembling Weston in Lafayette Square the morning of the shootings. According to the Times, the man pointed at the White House and said: "Millions of people are going to die because of the people you put in that house."
 

As authorities concentrated on the official investigation of the shootings, many people seemed drawn to the scene of the crime to leave their own personal tributes.
 

On the marble Capitol steps, a makeshift shrine of flowers and bouquets grew through the day, even as sightseers returned to wait in line for a tour of the Capitol.
 

A child-drawn picture with the note "Peace on Earth" addressed a message to the officers: "Thank you for being there and protecting so many."
 

Jeanne Gross, 68, came from Germantown with her friend Genevieve Dunbar, 74, to deliver flowers to the Capitol because "it's sad that they have to give up their lives for someone so demented. They have wives, children, left alone."
 

Barbara Rackle, 55, of Gaithersburg, said, "I had to come. This is our heritage," pointing toward the American flag that whipped, in the stiff breeze, at half-staff above the Capitol. "Our liberty is so costly. Things like this do happen, but I just couldn't believe it would happen here, in our Capitol."
 

Ambigapathy Ramji, a 23-year-old tourist from Geneva, said he was overwhelmed with shock when he heard of Friday's shooting and felt compelled to pay tribute to the slain officers by visiting the steps of the Capitol.
 

"It's very troubling," Ramji said. "No one thought something like this could happen."

Officers to Lie in Capitol As Congress Pays Homage Weston's Condition Improves; Insanity Defense Expected
Monday, July 27, 1998
 

The bodies of U.S. Capitol Police officers Jacob J. Chestnut and John M. Gibson will lie tomorrow in the majestic Rotunda of the building where they gave their lives, a farewell usually reserved for the nation's revered leaders.
 

The two policemen slain Friday will lie at the Capitol Rotunda throughout the day, an unprecedented honor for the men who died defending tourists and elected representatives. The public will be admitted to pay tribute to the officers from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m., except for a brief period beginning at 3 p.m. when members of the Capitol Police, the officers' families and Congress will attend a private ceremony. President Clinton and Vice President Gore also plan to attend.
 

Yesterday, the private and public families shattered by the violence struggled slowly to deal with the aftermath of Friday's violence. Also yesterday, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Gary L. Abrecht offered his first public comments; authorities continued to search for clues to the suspect's possible motive; and visitors to the Capitol placed still more flowers on the steps as an expression of their grief.
 

Meanwhile, Russell Eugene Weston Jr., 41, charged with killing the two officers when he burst into the Capitol on a languid Friday afternoon, was upgraded from critical condition to serious condition by officials at D.C. General Hospital.
 

Weston, a drifter with unusual suspicions, barged through a metal detector Friday and allegedly executed Chestnut, 58, without warning, and then killed Gibson, 42, in a gunfight.
 

Law enforcement sources said yesterday that Weston emptied his six-chamber .38-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol; in return, he was wounded in the torso, arms, buttocks and thigh.
 

Weston is under arrest, held without bond on two federal murder charges, as he lies under heavy guard in the locked ward of the hospital. Charges against him, filed Saturday in D.C. Superior Court, likely will be transferred today to U.S. District Court. The federal court was closed on Saturday, so prosecutors secured an order in D.C. Superior Court to keep Weston in custody.
 

Law enforcement sources said the prosecution team already is bracing for a possible insanity defense or claim of incompetency, as new details emerged of Weston's behavioral history, including a 1996 visit by Weston to Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in which he claimed he was a clone and President John F. Kennedy's son.
 

Congress is expected to reconvene today with a tribute to the officers. Both houses are to approve the public viewing of the officers' caskets in the Rotunda, an honor until now afforded only 27 people in the nation's history. Four were unknown soldiers; all the others were presidents, generals, members of Congress or other dignitaries.
 

Separate funerals for the men are set for Thursday and Friday, each including a motorcade past the Capitol.
 

"My thoughts and prayers go out to the families," said Abrecht, who has met privately with the families. "They were in a great state of grief."
 

The police chief said Gibson will be buried on Thursday in Lake Ridge. Chestnut, an Air Force veteran, will be interred the following day at Arlington National Cemetery.
 

Abrecht said his review of the incident convinced him "our people did exactly what they should have done. They were heroic in every way." Abrecht, speaking later at a brief news conference outside the Capitol, called his two officers "fallen heroes" and said he could not comprehend how their families were dealing with their deaths with such grace.
 

Abrecht recounted how, after the shootings, his own teenage daughter "came running up to me and threw her arms around me" in a scene he thought was being repeated in police families all across the nation.
 

"The past few days have been an extremely trying time for the United States Capitol Police," Abrecht said. "From the expressions of sympathy which have been pouring in to our department, it is evident that our loss and feelings of sadness are being shared by the United States Congress and the American public."
 

In a separate interview, Abrecht recalled that he would often "stop and chat with Chestnut; he was a wonderful, quiet professional police officer. He was steady and unruffleable." Abrecht said Chestnut had a "friendly but firm manner. He was excellent with the public."
 

Jonathan L. Arden, chief medical examiner of the District, said yesterday that autopsies of the two officers Friday night showed that "neither one of them had any significant chance of being able to survive his wounds."
 

"Unfortunately, there are some wounds that simply are not survivable," Arden said. He said Chestnut died of a gunshot wound to the head that penetrated the brain, and Gibson died from a wound to the abdomen with penetration of his aorta.
 

It is unclear whether Chestnut ever confronted his killer. According to law enforcement sources who have watched a security camera videotape, Chestnut was standing with his back to the metal detector, writing directions for a father and son, when Weston strode through the metal detector and immediately shot Chestnut in the back of the head.
 

Tourist Angela Dickerson, 24, who was escorting relatives on a Capitol tour Friday, also suffered gunshot wounds during the incident. She was discharged from the hospital Saturday.
 

A note saying "No Soliciting Please!" was taped to the front door of Dickerson's family home in Chantilly yesterday. Knocks at the door and calls to the home went unanswered.
 

Liz Lapham, 44, a neighbor who said she had spoken to Dickerson's father, said that he told her his daughter was "going to be okay. She's just really exhausted and resting," Lapham said. Dickerson, an interior designer, has been married for a year, Lapham said.
 

"It's really a tragedy that she was where she was," Lapham said. "They're overwhelmed by it."
 

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies continued to study Weston's life, seeking to understand what may have driven a man considered a harmless nut by neighbors in Illinois and Montana to such bloodshed.
 

Several hundred law enforcement officers are now working on the case in Illinois, Montana and Washington. Sources said they have executed search warrants at his parents' home in Valmeyer, Ill., and his shack in Rimini, Mont., an old mining community about 20 miles southwest of the state capital of Helena. They popped open the door to his mountain shack with a crowbar attached to a cable and sent in a remote-control robot to protect themselves from any possible booby traps. None was found.
 

They also found magazines and a stack of papers with Weston's diaries and other writings in the red Chevrolet pickup truck the suspect drove from Valmeyer to Washington on Thursday night, the sources said.
 

A top-ranking law enforcement source said agents searching the home of Weston's parents in Illinois were looking for writings in a sealed container that might show motive or premeditation.
 

Weston had come to official notice several times. Citing state laws protecting the confidentiality of medical records, an official at the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs declined to discuss the specifics of Weston's treatment at the psychiatric facility during a 53-day stay in late 1996. A court ordered what is known as an involuntary civil commitment for Weston because of repeated threats against Jefferson County law enforcement authorities stemming from a dispute he had with his elderly landlady in 1983.
 

Weston was discharged from the state hospital on Dec. 2, 1996, and arrangements were made to allow him to prepare his cabin in Rimini for winter and then return to the supervision of his parents in Waterloo, Ill.
 

In an interview yesterday at their home, Weston's parents said their son was diagnosed a decade ago as a paranoid schizophrenic.
 

"I don't know what you can do about someone like that," a source at a federal agency said. "If the doctors thought he was okay, how can anyone else predict he'll go off?"
 

Law enforcement sources also were studing the details of Weston's visit on July 29, 1996, to the Langley headquarters of the CIA.
 

According to a source familiar with a memorandum on the incident, Weston drove up to the main CIA gate off Route 123 and said he had information to report. The source said Weston "rambled on for several hours" to a security officer, explaining that he was the son of Kennedy, that he had been cloned at birth, that Clinton was a clone, that everyone was a clone. He also claimed that Clinton was responsible for the Kennedy assassination because Kennedy had stolen Clinton's girlfriend, Marilyn Monroe.
 

"He was clearly delusional, but he didn't make any threats," the source said. "If he had, we would have arrested him. But it was just, 'I'm a clone, Clinton's a clone, all God's children are clones.' He told a bunch of wild stories and drove off into the sunset."
 

Weston, who has told his neighbors he believes the government is watching him through satellite dishes, also told the security officer he received "special presidential programming through interactive television and radio."
 

Weston ended his visit by informing the officer that he would "report back in 10 or 15 years." He later sent two letters to the CIA.
 

The first letter, which was typed, informed the agency that "as timing reverse becomes more aphonic," he thought he should join the CIA. The second letter, which was handwritten and sent in May, complained that someone had stolen a time device that he had invented. It was signed: "Brigidier General Russell E. Weston."
 

Weston's previous actions could present difficulties for government prosecutors, who have charged him with two counts of murdering federal officers in the performance of their duties, charges that could carry the death penalty.
 

If Weston's attorneys question his competency to stand trial, a judge would have to find that he understands the nature of the proceedings and can assist in his own defense before the prosecution could proceed.
 

If Weston goes to trial, his attorneys might employ an insanity defense -- that is, argue that he was not sane at the time of the attack and therefore did not know the wrongfulness of his actions.
 

"I know that if I were Weston's lawyer, I'd be thinking about an insanity defense," one law enforcement official said. "Clearly, it looks like that's what we're up against. . . . But there's a big difference between 'crazy' in the vernacular and 'crazy' in the legal sense."
 

Weston's past activities and his alleged involvement in the Capitol shootings also have raised anew questions about how federal agencies determine what they consider dangerous behavior, and what they can do about it.
 

The Secret Service had a routine interview with Weston in the spring of 1996, after learning about comments and letters he had written about Clinton and the federal government. But the agency classified him as a "low-level threat" and did not notify other agencies, although it did keep his name on file. The CIA source said his agency briefed the Secret Service again after Weston's visit to Langley, but neither agency took any action.
 

"Obviously, this guy has problems, but lots of people have problems," one federal law enforcement source said yesterday. "Everyone has a constitutional right to be crazy."
 

The CIA official also said his agency's options were limited in dealing with a delusional but non-threatening individual: "It's not unusual to have strange people show up at our gate. We treat it seriously, but there's only so much you can do if laws aren't broken."
 

In their investigation of Friday's fatal gun battle, authorities have interviewed more than 80 witnesses in Washington, and believe more than 20 of them will be able to help them reconstruct the crime in court, sources said. They said authorities also plan to interview John Broder, a New York Times reporter who said he was approached by a man resembling Weston in Lafayette Square the morning of the shootings. According to the Times, the man pointed at the White House and said: "Millions of people are going to die because of the people you put in that house."
 

As authorities concentrated on the official investigation of the shootings, many people seemed drawn to the scene of the crime to leave their own personal tributes.
 

On the marble Capitol steps, a makeshift shrine of flowers and bouquets grew through the day, even as sightseers returned to wait in line for a tour of the Capitol.
 

A child-drawn picture with the note "Peace on Earth" addressed a message to the officers: "Thank you for being there and protecting so many."
 

Jeanne Gross, 68, came from Germantown with her friend Genevieve Dunbar, 74, to deliver flowers to the Capitol because "it's sad that they have to give up their lives for someone so demented. They have wives, children, left alone."
 

Barbara Rackle, 55, of Gaithersburg, said, "I had to come. This is our heritage," pointing toward the American flag that whipped, in the stiff breeze, at half-staff above the Capitol. "Our liberty is so costly. Things like this do happen, but I just couldn't believe it would happen here, in our Capitol.&