The US Capitol Police say they apprehended Marc Beauchamp of Henrico, Virginia, Sunday night. The police force says it caught Beauchamp inside the perimeter contained by fencing around the US Capitol.
One curious note: The cops say Beauchamp parked on the grass by the Lincoln Memorial, an act they helpfully note is illegal. This also means Beauchamp would have had to travel about two miles, presumably on foot, before he reached the site where his alleged adventure ended. (The Capitol Police tell Washingtonian no incident report is available.)
If the police can prove their case against Beauchamp, it could mean that Washington has yet another fence that some people view not as national security infrastructure but as some sort of challenge. Jumpers have breached the White House fence countless times (one person did it four times) and thrown a lot of weird stuff over it. The Capitol fence, of course, dates back to the beginning of 2021, when fans of then President Trump invaded the Capitol in a boneheaded attempt to reverse Trump’s election loss to Joe Biden. Earlier this month, an Indiana man drove his car into barricades outside the Capitol, killing one Capitol Police officer before he was shot and killed.
An outer layer of fencing was removed from the Capitol complex before that attack, which appears to have slowed momentum for removing the fencing. The Capitol Police planned to reconstruct that outer fencing before the verdict of Derek Chauvin’s murder trial in the death of George Floyd, but abandoned those plans after Chauvin was found guilty, Politico reported last week.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
