Skip to content
Breaking News Alert 'Bidenbucks' Tentacles Expand As Judge Shuts Down Lawsuit

Virginia Man Arrested At Inauguration Checkpoint Was Credentialed Security Employee

Capitol Hill

One Virginia man’s arrest at an inauguration checkpoint is feeding hysterical headlines after he brought an unregistered firearm to the capital by mistake.

Share

A Virginia man making headlines for his arrest after he brought an unregistered firearm to an inauguration checkpoint in the days leading up to the ceremony was caught as the victim of a bureaucratic mix-up.

Wesley Allen Beeler, 31, was taken into custody after driving his Ford F-150 to an inauguration checkpoint located on the northeast end of the Capitol where officers stopped Beeler to check his credentials. According to the Washington Post, Beeler was credentialed by MVP Protective Services, a private security firm contracted to support law enforcement operations surrounding this week’s inauguration.

Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig wrote on Twitter that Beeler, who held no extremist ties and fully cooperated with police, possessed the proper Park Pass but that the bureaucrats who issued the credential failed to adequately communicate to Secret Service and other agencies. Beeler’s employer, MVP Protective Services, did not immediately respond to The Federalist’s inquiries surrounding details of his credential.

“I showed them the inauguration badge that was given to me,” Beeler told the Post, while officers questioned whether he had any firearms in the vehicle. Beeler told the checkpoint officers he had a Glock in the armrest, prompting officials to search the car and pull out the firearm, which was found with 500 rounds of ammunition and about two dozen shotgun shells “located in plain sight,” according to court documents reviewed by the Post.

Beeler, a longtime security contractor, said he entered the checkpoint by mistake, unfamiliar with the locked-down area, which is surrounded by upwards of 25,000 troops ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s swearing-in.

“It was an honest mistake,” Beeler told the Post, adding that he forgot he had the firearm that he’s licensed to carry in Virginia in the car when he left for the District. Beeler told the paper he only realized he still had the gun with him halfway through the trip and was already running late, so he opted not to turn back.

“I pulled up to a checkpoint after getting lost in D.C. because I’m a country boy,” Beeler told the paper.

The episode, however, fed the hysteria surrounding the media-manufactured possibility of a mass uprising this week after a horde of Trump supporters sacked the Capitol building earlier this month.

CNN’s Jim Sciutto tweeted about Beeler’s arrest Saturday, manipulating the story to fuel the insurrectionist narrative taking over Washington.

“New: US Capitol Police arrested a Virginia man as he attempted to pass through a police checkpoint in downtown Washington Friday with fake inaugural credentials, a loaded handgun & over 500 rounds of ammunition, CNN reporting,” Sciutto wrote, omitting that the Virginia man was a credentialed employee, whose valid credentials had been declined upon entry at that particular checkpoint, who had no extremists ties and cooperated entirely with law enforcement.