A San Antonio man was arrested near the official residence of Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington on Wednesday and was charged with weapons-related offences, the US Secret Service said. The Secret Service, responsible for the security of the president and vice president, said the suspect, Paul Murray, 31, was detained by its uniformed officers on the street near a government complex that houses the vice president’s residence and the US Naval Observatory. Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department said its officers then arrested and charged Murray.
The department said the arrest was sparked by an “intelligence bulletin that originated from Texas.” The department did not elaborate on the bulletin’s contents. Murray had been experiencing “paranoid delusions” that the military or government wanted to kill him, and that he sent his mother a text message saying he was in Washington and was going to “take care of his problem.” DC police said Murray was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon, carrying a rifle or shotgun outside of a business, possession of unregistered ammunition and possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device. Police said a rifle and ammunition were recovered from Murray’s vehicle. Also found in that black Chevy Impala was what police called a large capacity ammunition feeding device.
Murray was stopped by Secret Service officers at around noon in the northwest section of Washington on Massachusetts Avenue, just outside the Naval Observatory, which contains Harris’ residence. The vice president and her husband, Doug Emhoff, do not currently live at the Naval Observatory, as the residence is undergoing renovations. The couple is living at Blair House, near the White House.
