FIRST ON FOX: The 44-year-old Washington, D.C., man accused of trying to smuggle a machete and three more knives into the Capitol Visitor Center Wednesday has been released from custody.
Mel J. Horne is accused of trying to get through a magnetometer and X-ray security screen after putting two pocket knives and a box cutter in the plastic tray.
Authorities then searched his bag and found the machete, according to the criminal complaint. He received a conditional pre-trial release after a hearing in D.C.’s Superior Court last week, according to police and court records. Specifics were not immediately available, but he was also given an order to stay away from the Capitol.
“[Horne] stated that he was visiting the U.S. Capitol to attend Former President Carter’s Lying in State Funeral, and that he possessed the knives and machete to use for landscaping work,” police alleged in an affidavit.
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Officers noted that there were 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 had been.
“[Horne] advised…that he was not coming from or on his way to a landscaping job,” the affidavit continued. “[Horne] stated that he was homeless, and that he carries these items everywhere he travels.”
President-elect Donald Trump, who was attending the Carter memorial the same day Horne allegedly tried to sneak weapons in, will be inaugurated for his second term on Jan. 20.
Horne had been living with his parents until they asked a court to kick him out in 2022, according to court documents in an unrelated civil case. It was dismissed without prejudice after he agreed to leave, with the caveat that he could return to take care of bonsai trees in their yard.
“My son is living in our house (rent free) and in the past year has started to use a substance to get high or alter his mind,” his mother, Brenda Horne, alleged in a civil complaint. “Now he is getting violent, and we are afraid and want him removed from our home.”
Read the police affidavit
Later in the document, she identified “PCP” as the drug she believed he was using, which she said made him difficult to handle when she called community resource officers.
“It took [four] visits from Community Resources Friday to finally remove him due to violence, and he is still hospitalized trying to get out,” she wrote.
She asked the judge to order his removal from her property and to force him into mental health treatment.
The case was ultimately dismissed without prejudice and Horne agreed to stay away from his parents’ home for a year – with the caveat that he was allowed to return only to the property’s exterior to take care of his bonsai trees, according to court documents.
Horne’s mother could not immediately be reached for comment.
Read the civil complaint
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U.S. Capitol Police arrested Horne last week at an X-ray machine in the Capitol Visitor Center after he allegedly tried to get through with a large machete and three folding knives.
It happened hours before a visit from Trump to pay his respects to former President Jimmy Carter, who was lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda.
“Our officers know they cannot let their guard down for one 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 Dec. 29.
The incident report in that case identifies Horne as a prior felon, although the nature of his prior conviction was not immediately clear. He was jailed previously in 2019, but the Department of Corrections told Fox News Digital it was not authorized to release records on that case.
He is now charged with multiple counts of carrying a dangerous weapon.
Two officers stopped Horne at the security screen after finding a machete, according to the document. With probable cause, they searched him further and allegedly found the other knives.
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A few hours later, Capitol police arrested another man, Virginia resident Adrian J. Hinton, 35, for allegedly attempting to torch a car outside the Grant Memorial.
The cases are not believed to be connected, authorities said.
Neither arrest interrupted the Carter memorial.
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