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Security raised a notch after shooting

Incident Monday at Capitol center

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Capitol complex reopened amid visibly higher security Tuesday, a day after police say officers shot and wounded a man who pulled a weapon at a security checkpoint as he entered the underground Capitol Visitor Center.

Larry R. Dawson of Tennessee, whom Capitol Police identified the man as the suspect, remained hospitalized and will not make a court appearance on Tuesday, said spokesman Bill Miller of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

The 66-year-old was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a police officer while armed. Dawson underwent surgery at a local hospital and as of late Monday was in stable but critical condition, police said.

Dawson disrupted a House session last October by yelling he was a “Prophet of God.” He was issued a “stay away order” by the District of Columbia Superior Court that same month that required him to avoid the Capitol grounds, court documents show.

Monday’s incident, in which a bystander was slightly wounded, occurred at the tourists’ entry point to a building that had heightened security even before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has had periodic scares ever since.

With last week’s suicide attacks in Brussels, Belgium, that killed 35 people fresh on people’s minds, Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa held a brief news conference at which he said terrorism seemed unlikely.

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