Man Arrested With Guillotine Outside United States Supreme Court

WASHINGTON — Just days after a man was sentenced for planning to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, authorities arrested another suspect near the U.S. Capitol — a man with a guillotine in the back of his truck.

Thirty-five-year-old Philan-Tam-Duy Le of Julian, California, had illegally parked his car along the 100 block of East Capitol Street, near the U.S. Supreme Court and the Capitol building. The U.S. Capitol Police said that they seized a guillotine spotted in the bed of his pickup truck on Tuesday afternoon around 3 p.m. after they noticed his car was illegally parked.

The suspect drove from California to Washington, D.C., and was arrested for carrying a dangerous weapon, according to the department.

“USCP investigators are going through the suspect’s background to learn more about why he came to Washington, DC,” Capitol Police said in a statement.

Photos provided by the police show a tall, apparently life-sized, guillotine sitting in the back of a black pickup truck. A family member told The Los Angeles Times that he recognized the truck as his brother’s vehicle.

The Secret Service told The Daily Wire that it is not involved in investigating the matter, and Capitol Police said they do not yet know the suspect’s motive.

The suspect’s brother told the Los Angeles Times that the guillotine was probably a “symbol of disapproval” and that Le was generally happy about the state of American politics and disliked both Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom. The suspect’s brother, Kelvin Le, described his brother as a free spirit who funded his travels around the country by working as a tattoo artist and doing piercings.

Le is one of several individuals who have been arrested after traveling across the country with a dangerous weapon.

Last week, 25-year-old Ryan Michael English (who goes by Reily or Raleigh Jane English) of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, was sentenced to 73 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release for plotting to kill Bessent, according to the Justice Department. English identified as a transgender woman and is one of a number of trans-identifying attempted assassins who have made headlines in recent years.

Nicholas Roske, the man who attempted to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh (another individual who identifies as a transgender woman), traveled from California to the D.C. area to kill the justice. According to prosecutors, Roske sought to keep Roe v. Wade from being overturned.

The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. In October 2025, police arrested a man who had hundreds of explosive devices with him outside a Mass in honor of the Supreme Court at St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. He had a manifesto indicating he was targeting the Supreme Court and Catholics, according to court papers obtained by The Daily Wire.

The manifesto “revealed his significant animosity towards the Catholic church, members of the Jewish faith, members of SCOTUS and ICE/ ICE facilities,” police said.