FIRST ON FOX: A 44-year-old Washington, DC, man accused of trying smuggle a machete and three more knives at the Capitol Visitor Center was released from custody on Wednesday.
Mel J. Horne is accused of trying to get through a magnetometer and X-ray security screen after placing two pocket knives and a box cutter in a plastic drawer.
Authorities then searched his bag and found a machete, according to the criminal complaint. He was granted pretrial release after a hearing in D.C. Superior Court last week, according to police and court records. Details were not immediately available.
“[Horne] stated that he was visiting the US Capitol to attend the funeral of former President Carter, and that he was in possession of knives and machetes that he used for landscaping work,” police said in an affidavit.
US Capitol Police stopped a man from entering the Capitol at a security checkpoint after he was allegedly found to have a machete and three knives in a bag. (US Capitol Police)
Officers noted that there was more than 6 inches of snow on the ground and that the city had declared a snow emergency, then asked him when his last landscaping job was.
“[Horne] advised … that he was not coming from or going to a landscaping job,” the affidavit continued. “[Horne] he stated that he is homeless, and that he carries these things everywhere he travels.”
President-elect Donald Trump, who attended Carter’s memorial the same day Horne allegedly tried to sneak in the weapon, will be inaugurated for his second term on January 20.
Horne lived with his parents until they asked the court to evict him in 2022, according to court documents in an unrelated civil case. It was dismissed without prejudice after he agreed to leave, noting that he could come back and take care of the bonsai trees in their yard.
“My son lives in our house (rent-free) and within the past year has started using a substance to get high or change his mind,” his mother, Brenda Horne, said in the civil suit. “Now he is becoming violent and we are afraid and want him removed from our home.”
Read the police statement
Later in the document, she identified “PCP” as the drug she believed he was using, which she said was difficult for him to handle when she called community resource officers.
“It was necessary [four] visits from community resources on Friday to finally get him removed for violence and he’s still in the hospital trying to get out,” she wrote.
She asked a judge to order his removal from her property and force him to undergo mental health treatment.
The case was eventually dismissed without prejudice and Horne agreed to stay out of his parents’ home for a year — with the caveat that, according to court documents, he could only return to the outside of the property to tend to his bonsai trees.
Horne’s mother could not immediately be reached for comment.
Read civil complaint
US Capitol Police they arrested Horne last week at the X-ray machine at the Capitol Visitor Center after he allegedly tried to walk through with a large machete and three folding knives.
It came hours before Trump visited to pay his respects to former President Jimmy Carter, who was lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda.
“Our officers know not to let their guard down for even a second,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said after the arrest. “It is this constant focus and attention to detail that helps keep this campus safe.”
Carter died at the age of 100 on December 29.
The US Capitol surrounded by a fence in preparation for January 6, 2025. (Fox News Digital)
An incident report in that case identifies Horne as a prior felon, although the nature of his prior conviction was not immediately clear. He was previously incarcerated in 2019, but the Department of Corrections told Fox News Digital it was not authorized to release records about the case.
He is now charged with multiple counts of carrying a dangerous weapon.
Two officers stopped Horne at a security screen after finding the machete, the document said. With probable cause, they searched him further and allegedly found the rest of the knives.
A Boy Scout troop salutes as they pay their respects in front of former President Jimmy Carter’s flag-draped casket in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 8, 2025. (Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images)
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Hours later, Capitol Police arrested another man, Virginia resident Adrian J. Hinton, 35, for allegedly trying to set fire to a car outside Grant’s monument.
The cases are not believed to be related, authorities said.
No arrests ended Carter’s memorial.
