The Vietnam Security Police Association, Inc. (USAF) is sad to announce the death of member
Jacob Chestnut. As a United States Air
Force Veteran, "JJ" Chestnut retired with
20 years service. He also served two tours
in the Republic of Vietnam. First with
the 12th Combat Security Police (Jan-Dec.
1966), Phu Cat, and second with the
633d Combat Security Police (May 1968-May
1969), Pleiku. (USAF
service photos: Jacob Chestnut; and Tribute
to a Friend) Jacob Chestnut, was an
18-year veteran with the Capitol police,
and Special Agent John Gibson, an 8-year
veteran. Both were married and each had
three children. Chestnut and Gibson were
laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
The Army approved Capitol Police Officer
Gibson's interment there, after it was
requested by Gingrich and House Minority
Leader Dick Gephardt.
The following information regarding the
Capitol building shooting is provided
courtesy of NBC 4 LA CHANNEL 4 NEWS.
This page is heavy in photos that may
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Capitol Police Officer Jacob Chestnut,
Vietnam Veteran, and member of the Vietnam Security Police Association, Inc. (USAF), was
killed in the line of duty at the Capitol
building in Washington D.C. on Friday
July 24, 1998. Fellow officer John Gibson
(photo right) was also fatally wounded
by the gunman. During the gun battle officers
struck down the suspect with five gunshot
wounds.
"U.S. Capitol police officer Jacob Chestnut
sacrificed his life in an attempt to stop
the gunman." Two Capitol police officers,
Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson, were fatally
wounded by the gunman, later identified
as 41-year-old Russell Eugene Weston of
Missoula, Montana, and formerly of Valmeyer,
Ill. Weston’s car, with expired plates,
was found near the Capitol.
   
A tourist, 24-year-old Angela Dickerson,
was also wounded during the shooting,
and was transported by ambulance to a
D.C. hospital. "Frantic witnesses, many
of them tourists close to tears, told
broadcast network reporters they heard
anywhere from five to seven shots about
12:40 p.m. PDT."
Details
of the shooting are under investigation. Angela
Dickerson was wounded in the gun battle. She
sustained wounds to the face and arm, and was
released from the hospital on Saturday.
A flag at the Capitol is lowered to
half-staff in honor of slain U.S. Capitol
Police Agent John Gibson and Officer Jacob
J. Chestnut. (AFP)
© 1998 The Washington Post CO
Capitol flags were ordered flown at half
mast pending the burial of both Capitol
Police Officers. Locally, California Governor
Pete Wilson, a former U.S. senator who
worked in the Capitol for years, ordered
flags at all state buildings flown at
half staff until the officers’ memorial
services are held. He also had security
beefed up Friday afternoon at the Capitol
in Sacramento.
Slain officers to lie in Capitol
Suspect upgraded to ‘serious’ condition
A U.S. Capitol policeman and his family
pay their respects Sunday at the steps
of the Capitol building, honoring the
two policemen who were killed there Friday.
MSNBC NEWS SERVICES
WASHINGTON, July 26 — Two Capitol officers
cut down in a burst of gunfire will be
memorialized in the building where they
worked and died and will lie in honor
in the great, soaring Rotunda where the
coffins of presidents and commanding generals
have rested, officials said Sunday. The
gunman’s medical condition, meanwhile,
was upgraded to serious.
Coffins bearing the remains of the officers
will be in the Capitol Rotunda early Tuesday
and remain there all day. Officially,
the slain Capitol police officers will
not lie in “state,” but in a status of congressional “tribute.”
“Those wishing to pay their respects may
file past the remains,” Capitol Police
Chief Gary Abrecht said Sunday. An afternoon
service is planned, with members of Congress,
other officers and families of the slain
men in attendance, he said.
President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore,
House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate
Majority Leader Trent Lott all are scheduled
to attend the event, officials said.
Abrecht said Gibson, 42, will be buried
Thursday at a location to be announced.
Chestnut, 58 and an Air Force veteran,
will be interred the following day at
Arlington National Cemetery.
The bodies of numerous high-ranking government
officials have lain in the Rotunda since
Abraham Lincoln’s casket was brought there
in 1865. Others similarly honored include
Presidents John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower,
as well as Gen. John J. Pershing and Adm.
Douglas McArthur.
House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt,
D-Mo., said the two officers should be
memorialized in the Capitol. “They gave
their lives, the ultimate act that anyone
can give for their fellow human beings,
and we want to honor them,” he said.
‘SAVAGERY’
In live television broadcasts, President
Bill Clinton called the Capitol firefight
“a moment of savagery” and House Speaker
Newt Gingrich delivered an emotional prayer,
asking God to take the officers “to your
bosom.”
Weston, described as a mentally troubled
man who drifted between homes in Montana
and Illinois, was already known to federal
authorities for making death threats against
Clinton two years ago, NBC News reported.
In his brief comments Saturday, Clinton
offered condolences to the families of
the two officers slain Friday. “Nothing
we can say will bring them back, but all
Americans pray that the power of a loving
God and the comfort of family and friends
will with time ease your sorrow and swell
your pride for loved ones and the sacrifice
they made for their fellow citizens,”
Clinton said, noting that the violence
should not be allowed to affect public
access to the Capitol. “We must keep it
a place where people can freely and proudly
walk the halls of their government.”
The repercussions were already setting
in, from the grief of the families to
the shaken colleagues of Chestnut and
Gibson who were being offered counseling,
to talk of enhanced security at a building
prized for openness. Among the options
was revived talk of construction of a
Capitol visitors center, possibly underground,
that could serve as a way station for
tourists as well as provide for greater
security.
Still, Gary Abrecht, chief of the Capitol
police, said there was little that could
have been done in the way of security
to prevent Weston’s attack that would
have been acceptable to members of Congress
and the public. “He was prepared to go
in there and die and take anybody with
him,” Abrecht said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”
“He never got more than 20 feet inside”
the building.
WASHINGTON, July 24 — During the shooting
and in the moments that followed visitors
to the Capitol recall scenes of violence
and fright. Some, including Sen. Bill
First, R- Tenn, a heart surgeon, attempted
to help the victims.
"School
teacher Jillian Simon (photo center) of
Wilmington, N.C., and Martin Daesher,
left, talk with reporters in front of
the Capitol after witnessing Friday's
shooting."
OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF THE SHOOTING
According
to the FBI affidavit filed in D.C. Superior
Court, the gunman entered the East Front of
the Capitol and shot Chestnut in the head.
He then went around the magnetometer and ran
down a hallway where he encountered Gibson
and shot him in the chest. Gibson managed to
return fire and Weston dropped.
Capitol Police spokesman Dan Nichols said
that after Chestnut was shot, the gunman
turned down the first corridor and pushed
through a door marked “Private, Do Not
Enter” which leads to a warren of offices
used by DeLay. Once inside he was confronted
by Gibson, who had already shouted to
nearby staffers to take cover. The two
men traded shots and both fell wounded,
their bodies lying near an office photocopier.
Another officer who ran to the scene straddled
the bleeding gunman, pointing his weapon
at him, an aide to DeLay said.
Two of the wounded men were treated by
Sen. Bill First, R-Tenn., who is a heart
surgeon. A tourist who was shot in the
episode, 24-year-old Angela Dickerson
of suburban Virginia, was released from
the hospital Saturday.
Congress honors slain officers
‘They
died saving lives,’ said Rep. Tom Delay,
R-Texas
  
Fellow
Officers pay tribute to slain friends.
"As children look on, police trainee Jason
Case kneels on the Capitol steps Monday
to pay his respects to the two police
officers killed Friday.
MSNBC
WASHINGTON, July 27 — United in mourning,
Congress grieved Monday for two police
officers who “died saving lives,” cut
down when a gunman invaded the Capitol.
The suspect, recovering from his wounds
in a hospital, was charged in federal
court and met with his court-appointed
attorney.
LAWMAKERS PASSED legislation praising
the slain officers, Jacob J. Chestnut
and John Gibson, for their “selfless acts
of heroism,” and the House conducted no
business during the day except to honor
the two men. Also approved was a measure
authorizing a memorial service for Tuesday
in the Capitol’s majestic Rotunda. Their
coffins will lie in honor in the
building throughout the day, an honor
customarily reserved for presidents and
other national leaders.
“These
men died defending the Capitol of the
United States of America, the symbol of
freedom across the world,” said House
Republican Whip Tom DeLay, his voice hoarse
with emotion. “They died saving lives,”
added DeLay, for whom Gibson had served
as a bodyguard.
Later, DeLay was quoted as telling House
members at a closed-door meeting that
Gibson initially let the gunman run past
him when he burst through the door to
the whip’s office last Friday. That way,
when the gunman turned around to shoot,
he was firing away from staff aides in
the corridor rather than in their direction.
President Bill Clinton places a memorial
wreath before the caskets of the two slain
officers during Tuesday's Rotunda ceremony.
Leaders accord a rare tribute to fallen
officers. Clinton, lawmakers honor ‘ministers
of democracy’.
WASHINGTON, July 28 — During a rare Rotunda
ceremony, President Bill Clinton and other
national leaders paid tribute Tuesday
to the two police officers killed in last
week’s Capitol gun battle. “They consecrated
this house of freedom,” the president
said.
OFFICERS Jacob J. CHESTNUT and John Gibson
were only the 26th and 27th Americans
to be so honored in the Rotunda, in a
tradition that began with the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln.
Police officers stand guard in the
Capitol Rotunda as the bodies of Jacob
Chestnut and John Gibson lie in state.
The highest officials of government took
their place among grieving family members,
rows of dignitaries and waves of blue-clad
police officers — with all eyes turned
to the two flag-draped caskets at the
center of the circular chamber.
“They
fulfilled their Lord’s definition of a
good life,” Clinton said. “They loved
justice. They did mercy. Now and forever,
they walk humbly with their god.” Clinton
broadened the scope of his remarks to
praise police officers across the nation.
“We honor them today,” the president said
of Chestnut and Gibson, “and in so doing
we honor the other thousands of officers
— including their colleagues — who stand
ready to do the same.”
Vice President Al Gore quoted the Scripture’s
admonition that those who would be great
should minister to the lowly, and called
Chestnut and Gibson “ministers of our
democracy.” He said the two officers were
“watchmen who guarded not just a building,
but an ideal.”
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott declared,
“The spirit of freedom is in this room
because of these two men.”
House Speaker Newt Gingrich consoled the
families of the fallen, telling them,
“Your sacrifice is a painful but real
building block of freedom.”
Chestnut and Gibson were killed Friday
by an intruder who shot his way into the
Capitol Building. During Tuesday’s ceremony,
Capitol Police Chief Gary Abrecht warned
others who might invade the Capitol that
“there are officers like J.J. and John
who are determined to fill the breach”
and protect the building and its visitors.
EXTRAORDINARY HONORS
Capitol Police Chief Gary L. Abrecht
salutes John Gibson and Jacob J. Chestnut.
(AFP)
In the hours before the ceremony, hundreds
upon hundreds of people filed around the
focal point of the “people’s house,” paying
their respects to the two officers. At
noon, hundreds of members of Congress
stood vigil over the caskets.
The formal honors began Monday when Congress
approved a resolution lauding the two
men “for the selfless acts of heroism
they displayed on July 24, 1998, in sacrificing
their lives in the line of duty so that
others might live.”
The resolution also provides funeral expenses
plus a gift equal to a year’s salary to
their wives and children, and authorizes
a plaque in the officers’ honor to be
placed in the Capitol.
Both men were due to be buried at Arlington
National Cemetery. Chestnut is an Air
Force veteran, and the Army approved Gibson’s
interment there after it was requested
by Gingrich, R-Ga., and House Minority
Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.
The families of Chestnut and Gibson released
statements, as well, expressing their
their thanks for the sympathy they’ve
received from public officials, as well
as strangers from around country and the
world.
U.S. Leaders Honor Officers
Wen Chestnut, widow of slain officer
Jacob Chestnut, and other family members
grieve as they attend the Congressional
tribute at the Capitol Rotunda Tuesday.
(Reuters)
By David Espo, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In mournful tribute
beneath the Capitol dome, President Clinton
praised two slain police officers Tuesday
as heroes whose sacrifice ``consecrated
this house of freedom.'' Lawmakers and
thousands of visitors joined in a day
long outpouring of sympathy.
Jacob J. Chestnut and John Gibson, killed
last Friday by a Capitol intruder, `died
in duty to the very freedom that all of
us cherish,'' said House Speaker Newt
Gingrich.
Evelyn Gibson (right), widow of slain
officer John Gibson, consoles her daughter
Kristen during the Congressional tribute
at the Capitol Rotunda. (AFP)
The widows, children and other relatives
of the slain men were seated for the memorial
service, a few feet from the flag-draped
coffins bearing the remains of their loved
ones. All others in attendance stood.
Customarily, only presidents, members
of Congress and military commanders are
permitted to lie in the Rotunda. Congress
made an exception in the case of the two
fallen officers, and by early morning,
hundreds of people were in line outside
the Capitol waiting to pay their respects.
Some wept, some saluted, others simply
stared at the caskets as the long line
filed slowly up the Capitol steps and
into the soaring Rotunda where the coffins
rested. An honor guard, four Capitol Police
officers in dress blue uniforms, stood
somber watch.
Joining the mourners were delegations
of law enforcement officials from across
the nation.
The memorial service was unprecedented
-- the nation's political leadership gathered
in one of the most hallowed rooms in the
land to mourn not a president or a general,
but two men unknown outside their own
communities.
Standing in a room graced with images
of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln
and other famous Americans, Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott said, ``Today we honor
two men that should rightly be recognized
in this hall of heroes.... It's appropriate
today that we honor these two men who
did their job, who stood the ground and
defended freedom.''
In his remarks at the brief ceremony,
Clinton paid tribute to the ``quiet courage
and uncommon bravery'' exhibited by Chestnut,
Gibson and so many other police officers
who are struck down in the line of duty.
The two men killed last Friday, he said: ``in doing their duty they saved lives,
they consecrated this house of freedom
and they fulfilled our Lord's definition
of a good life. They loved justice, they
did mercy, now and forever, they walk
humbly with their God.''
For the second straight day, the House
canceled its legislative business out
of respect for the two men who died while
at their posts in the Capitol. ``In our
hearts and in our minds, their heroism
can never be forgotten,'' said Rep. Lynn
Woolsey, D-Calif., one of several lawmakers
to speak of the two men in the House during
the day.
``Who could ever imagine a shooting in
the nation's Capitol, a shrine to liberty
and justice for all,'' added Rep. Constance
Morella, R-Md.
Across the Capitol, Sen. Ben Nighthorse
Campbell, R-Colo., pinned a Capitol policeman's
patch to his jacket -- a gift, he said,
from Gibson a few weeks ago.
The Rotunda was closed to the public for
a while at midday to permit members of
Congress to view the caskets. Gingrich,
Democratic leader Dick Gephardt and House
GOP Whip Tom DeLay, his wife and daughter
formed a receiving line for fellow lawmakers.
Gibson had served as DeLay's bodyguard.
The scene in the Capitol's Rotunda was
unprecedented as powerful lawmakers and
tourists alike came to pay their respects
to Chestnut and Gibson.
First inside were Jeffrey Barrow, 13,
and his father, Don, a locksmith from
Atlanta, who had been in the Capitol Friday
when the shooting broke out.
``I wanted to come and pay respects,''
said the boy. ``I've been asking myself
why would he want to kill them. They didn't
do anything to him.''
Many uniformed police officers also filed
past, some of them wiping away tears,
as the long, hot day wore on.
Chestnut, who was 58, and Gibson, 42,
will be buried later in the week at Arlington
National Cemetery.
Justus
Cade, his sister, Evangeline, and their
father Charles Cade wait in line to pay
their respects to the officers killed
at the U.S. Capitol. (By Robert A. Reeder
— The Washington Post)
Capitol Police officer Richard Purdy hugs
Jilian Williams as Adriane Norman looks
on. They are friends of the slain officers.
(By Lucien Perkins — The Washington Post)
Members of Tom Delay's staff pause in
front of the caskets of officers Jacob
J. Chestnut and John M. Gibson as they
lay in honor at the Capitol Rotunda Tuesday,
July 28, 1998, in Washington. (By Doug
Mills — Associated Press)
People pass by the caskets as they
lay in honor at the Capitol Rotunda.
(By Jo Marquette — Associated Press)
Evelyn Gibson (seated), wife of slain
U.S. Capitol Police officer John Gibson,
and her daughter Kristen (center) attend
a memorial service in honor of Gibson
and Chestnut in the Rotunda at the U.S.
Capitol. (By Joyce Naltchayant — AFP)
President Bill Clinton prays along with
family members of U.S. Capitol Police
officer Jacob Chestnut during the benediction
prayer in the Capitol Rotunda. (By Joyce
Naltchayant — AFP)
SUSPECT IMPROVES
A mug shot of Russell Eugene Weston, who
opened fire inside the U.S. Capitol building
Friday. Suspect Russell Weston remains
in guarded condition with gunshot wounds
from Capitol Police officers. Russell
is known for prior threats against the
President of the United States.
The condition of the suspect, Russell
E. Weston Jr., 41, from Rimini, Mont.,
was upgraded from critical to serious
during the day. “His cardiac status has
improved,” said D.C. General Hospital
spokeswoman Donna Lewis Johnson. Weston
was shot in the chest, arms, thigh and
buttocks and brought down in a furious
exchange of gunfire with Gibson.
Authorities arranged a hearing in absentia
for Weston on Monday in federal court,
a few blocks from the Capitol. Papers
filed in court in the District of Columbia
on Saturday charged him with killing the
two officers; the purpose of Monday’s
hearing is to bring the case into federal
court.
SUSPECT CONFUSED
The shooting suspect, Russell E. Weston
Jr., remained in stable condition Tuesday
but faced further surgery. On Monday,
U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson
said she would evaluate Weston’s case
“day by day,” with arraignment and additional
charges possibly delayed until he is healthy
enough to appear in court. Weston already
is charged with murder in the Friday gunfight
that killed the two officers and wounded
a tourist.
Amid speculation that Weston — once diagnosed
as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia
— could plead insanity in his defense,
prosecutors said it was much too early
to make any definitive decisions about
their case or whether they would seek
the death penalty.
“We’re
preparing for all possibilities,” Assistant
U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips said.
Weston, 41, was being kept under sedation
and heavily guarded in his hospital bed
at D.C. General Hospital. Dr. Norma Smalls
said wounds caused by bullets that tore
through bones and blood vessels in an
arm and leg required more surgery and
risked causing a blood clot that could
threaten his life.
Weston “is aware that he is a prisoner,”
Smalls said. “We are able to speak to
him, but there is some confusion on his
part.”
Weston’s court-appointed lawyer, A.J.
Kramer, said he had been able to speak
with his new client for 45 minutes Monday
morning but declined to discuss Weston’s
condition or legal situation, other than
to say, “He’s not in good shape” physically.
MOTIVE KEY TO INSANITY DEFENSE
Weston was diagnosed years ago as a paranoid
schizophrenic who suffers from delusions.
At times Weston believed the federal government
was watching him through a neighbor’s
satellite dish or had spiked his land
with mines. He once pestered a guard at
the CIA’s headquarters with claims that
he and the president were clones.
Should Weston’s attorneys eventually decide
to enter an insanity plea, such delusions
may not be enough to make that case. Insanity
is a legal classification that goes beyond
a diagnosis of mental illness. Under federal
law, to plead insanity it must be proven
that a defendant suffers from severe mental
illness and, at the time of the crime,
was incapable of understanding the moral
or criminal wrongfulness of what he or
she did.
Russell Eugene Weston Jr. in a 1991 Montana
sheriff's booking photo. He was charged
at the time for drug possession. “We can
have two paranoid schizophrenics committing
the same act... and one could be found
sane and one could be found criminally
insane,” according to forensic psychiatrist
Phillip Resnick, a consultant to prosecutors
in the Unabomber and Oklahoma City bombing
cases.
“Until
you can find out his motive, and why he
did what he did, you can’t know” whether
a defendant qualifies as insane, Resnick
said. If Weston’s lawyers decide to pursue
an insanity claim, they first would ask
a judge to order a 30-day psychiatric
review, which probably would take place
at the nearest federal prison, Phillips
said.
Such defenses are difficult to prove,
relying not just on psychiatric evaluation
but on witnesses’ testimony and other
evidence as well. Insanity defenses are
rare, arising in about 1 percent of all
criminal prosecutions, according to Dr.
Paul Appelbaum, secretary of the American
Psychiatric Association. When raised,
the defense is only about 25 percent successful,
he said.
For Russell Weston’s parents, the ordeal
of being questioned by the federal officials
is over, and now they are left alone with
their grief and sorrow. NBC’s Ed Rabel
reports.
Anyone found not guilty by reason of insanity
would most likely be sent to a mental
hospital instead of a prison.
WESTON’S PARENTS APOLOGIZE
Weston’s parents, Russell Sr. and Arbah
Jo, said Monday they hadn't spoken to
their son since the shooting. “I feel
so bad about it,” Weston Sr. said on NBC,
speaking from his home in Valmeyer, Ill.
“I feel so bad for the people that he
killed. I apologize to the nation.”
Weston’s father said his son had a long
history of mental illness, starting after
he graduated from high school.
To federal officials, Weston was a Secret
Service nightmare. He visited CIA headquarters
on July 29, 1996, sat with a CIA security
officer and began to ramble, getting into
“some pretty bizarre stuff,” according
to a government official who spoke on
condition of anonymity. Weston claimed
to have been cloned at birth, said that
Clinton had been cloned at birth and claimed
Clinton may have played a role in the
Kennedy assassination out of anger at
Kennedy “for stealing his (Clinton’s)
girlfriend, Marilyn Monroe.”
While Weston’s motive for shooting the
police officers is unclear, agents recovered
some evidence from Weston’s home: A logbook
or diary and a voluminous amount of papers
were recovered by FBI agents from his
truck and home, according to law enforcement
sources. They declined to describe the
writings in detail, but there was an indication
they revealed some instability. One law
enforcement official said prosecutors
did not want the writings discussed because
they went to Weston’s state of mind and
might aid defense attorneys.
Weston wrote several letters to Sen. Conrad
Burns, R-Mont., MSNBC affiliate KERI in
Helena, Mont., reported. Capitol police
were reportedly investigating the contents
of the undisclosed letters.
Murder Charges Filed in Capitol Rampage
See Detailed Map
By Michael Grunwald and Cheryl W. Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Russell Eugene Weston Jr., a former mental
patient from Montana, was charged yesterday
with murdering two U.S. Capitol Police
officers during a rampage in the Capitol
building that allegedly began when Weston
walked up behind an officer and shot him
point-blank in the back of the head.
Law enforcement sources and court documents
added chilling new details yesterday about
the Friday afternoon killings of Jacob
J. Chestnut, 58, and John M. Gibson, 42,
both 18-year veterans of the force. They
said that after bursting through a Capitol
security checkpoint and shooting Chestnut,
Weston chased a screaming woman down a
hallway until he was confronted by Gibson,
who pushed the woman out of harm's way
and exchanged deadly gunfire with the
intruder.
Weston, 41, slipped into unconsciousness
and was downgraded early yesterday from
stable to critical condition after surgery
Friday at D.C. General Hospital. Doctors
said he had a "50-50" chance of survival.
He was ordered held without bond yesterday
during a brief hearing in D.C. Superior
Court.
An FBI agent's affidavit filed in court
says Gibson and another officer – identified
by law enforcement sources as Douglas
B. McMillan – fired at Weston several
times. Angela Dickerson, a 24-year-old
employee of a Virginia furniture store,
was wounded by stray gunfire. She was
released yesterday from George Washington
University Medical Center.
SECURITY TO BE REVIEWED
For the second day in a row, Lott suggested
swift action on a proposed visitors center
for tourists that would also provide enhanced
security. He said he would meet Wednesday
with other lawmakers to try crafting a
bill on the subject.
But Lott has insisted that there would
be no “armed compound” established in
a building long prized for its openness.
Separately, the Senate agreed to add $14
million for unspecified security needs
to a spending bill under consideration.
NBC News correspondent Gwen Ifill and
The Associated Press contributed to this
report.
Paying
Respects to Two Who Paid the Price
A tribute in the Rotunda (Reuters)
The nation's week-long public mourning
over the slayings of two U.S. Capitol
Police officers turned to private sorrow
Wednesday as family, friends and colleagues
of slain Detective John M. Gibson remembered
him in silent prayer and hushed words
of comfort.
Funeral Processions Likely to Snarl Traffic
By Alice Reid, Washington Post Staff Writer
Today's funeral procession for slain U.S.
Capitol Police Detective John M. Gibson
will be at least 12 miles long as it travels
a 35-mile route from Prince William County
to Arlington National Cemetery, and motorists
should expect traffic tie-ups for much
of the day, police said.
(From) the U.S. Capitol and along the
Mall, reaching the cemetery in the early
afternoon.
About 1,000 police cruisers will take
part in the procession,
©
Copyright 1998 The Washington Post CO
The Funerals
Two Heroes, Many Tears
Escorted by 14-Mile Motorcade, Detective
Gibson Is Laid to Rest (By Marylou
Tousignant and Patricia Davis Washington
Post Staff Writers)
On Shirley Highway overpasses, they waved
tiny flags as the long funeral cortege
passed. On the freeway below, they pulled
over and climbed out of their cars, placing
their hands over their hearts. On the
streets of a grieving capital, small children
were hoisted onto their parents' shoulders
to watch this last journey of a hero they
never knew.
And on a sultry summer afternoon yesterday,
beneath the shade of a red maple tree
at Arlington National Cemetery, slain
Capitol Police Detective John Michael
Gibson was laid to rest.
The 1,000-vehicle motorcade that traveled
35 miles from a Prince William County
church to the Mall and then on to Arlington
halted lunch-hour routines and, for many,
became a somber reminder of American values.
Along the Mall, souvenir and refreshment
sales slowed to a trickle, and families
picnicking on the grass looked up to catch
a glimpse of the hearse carrying the body
of Gibson, 42. Office workers, tourists
and police officers saluted or placed
their hands over their hearts as it passed,
some in tears.
The motorcade stretched for more than
14 miles and took about a half-hour to
pass by. It began after Gibson's funeral
at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church
in Lake Ridge, traveled up Interstates
95 and 395 and went past the U.S. Capitol,
where Gibson worked for 18 years and where
he was slain last Friday.
Law enforcement officers turned out in
droves, from as far away as California
and Canada, to lead the tribute to Gibson,
whom mourners described as an ordinary
man who did an extraordinary thing in
sacrificing his life to save others in
the shootout.
"You
didn't have to know him personally," said
Sgt Thomas Maksym of the Nassau County
(N.Y.) Police Department, holding a damp
handkerchief as he stood at Gibson's grave
site. "You know the risks he faced every
day. It could have been you."
Thousands of onlookers lined the funeral
route, waiting in the blistering heat
for the cortege to pass. An honor guard
of 260 motorcycle officers led the way.
As the procession traveled up Shirley
Highway in the center car-pool lanes,
vehicles in the north and southbound lanes
pulled to the shoulders, and motorists
got out to watch.
About 130 people waited at the Seminary
Road overpass in Alexandria, some arriving
90 minutes before the motorcade started
to come by at 12:30 p.m.
Christine DeRiso, who once worked for
the Montgomery County police, was moved
to tears as she watched the long line
of police cars and motorcycles. "That's
why they call it a brotherhood," said
DeRiso, 30, of Sterling.
Gibson and another 18-year Capitol Police
veteran, Officer Jacob J. Chestnut, 58,
were killed when an armed intruder rushed
past a security checkpoint in the Capitol.
Chestnut was shot without warning near
the visitors' entrance. Gibson, a plainclothes
officer assigned to protect House Majority
Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), was fatally wounded
in an exchange of point-blank gunfire
with the assailant. DeLay and others have
said that Gibson's quick actions saved
many other people's lives.
The suspect, Russell Eugene Weston Jr.,
41, is in D.C. General Hospital, continuing
to recover from his gunshot wounds.
At his funeral Mass, Gibson was remembered
as a loving husband and father of three
teenage children; a devoted, disciplined
law enforcement officer; and a transplanted
Bostonian who never lost his accent or
his love of baseball's Red Sox and hockey's
Bruins.
The assembled congregation, which included
DeLay and several other lawmakers and
Hill aides, quickly filled the 1,500 seats
for the 10 a.m. service, spilling over
into the nearby parish hall and onto the
sidewalks.
When the Capitol Police ceremonial unit
arrived, two dozen members quietly exited
the bus. While straightening their dress
uniforms and buffing their leather straps,
the officers kept their hats low over
their eyes and shook their heads solemnly.
"It's just too difficult," one officer
muttered as he prepared to get in formation.
Among the last to arrive, walking slowly
up the long driveway leading to the red-brick
church, were Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)
and his wife, Victoria, who held hands
as they entered the building. Kennedy
said earlier that he empathized with the
two officers' families because "my family,
too, has suffered the sudden loss of loved
ones, and I know that there is no greater
tragedy, no greater sadness for a family."
Chestnut's family, who will bury their
loved one at Arlington today, also attended
Gibson's services to offer support and
comfort to his widow, Lynn, and the couple's
three children. The Gibsons will do the
same at Chestnut's funeral today in Fort
Washington.
"John
truly loved his work," Gibson's longtime
friend, Capitol Police Sgt Jack DeWolfe,
said in his eulogy. But his "greatest
accomplishment in life was marrying Lynn
and having Kristen, Jack and Danny. You
were his whole world," DeWolfe said.
"John,
my best friend, I love you. I will miss
you," DeWolfe concluded, his voice starting
to crack. "You will be in my heart forever."
John Arnold, 15, a friend of Jack Gibson's
whose father is also a police officer,
said the Capitol shootings were traumatic
for officers' families.
"My
best friend just lost his dad, and it
could have happened to me," he said.
Joining the mourners was Holly Balcom-Mensch,
who taught both Gibson boys in fourth
grade at Lake Ridge Elementary School,
where Lynn Gibson is a crossing guard.
Balcom-Mensch said she wrote the boys
a letter in which she said that their
father died a brave man and that his legacy
would always be a part of them.
Outside the church, neighbors lined the
streets of the quiet suburban neighborhood,
awed by the turnout and the emotion evoked
by the ceremony. Some offered drinks to
police officers and reporters, and one
woman sewed a button on an officer's coat
for him.
Shortly after noon, the motorcycles led
the cortege away from the church, riding
two abreast, their blue and red lights
flashing. As the procession turned onto
Old Bridge Road, it passed under the extended
ladders of two firetrucks, a large U.S.
flag suspended between them.
Spectators gathered along the grassy median
and shoulders of the road leading to the
interstate. They stood in front of shops,
gas stations and convenience stores, some
with signs, others with more flags, large
and small.
In Washington, when the first motorcycles
came into view over the 14th Street bridge,
a hush fell over the crowd, and parents
standing two and three-deep on the sidewalk
lifted their children to see the procession.
"As
people started watching, there was just
a quietness," said Charles Houston, 51,
a truck driver who lives in the District.
"When something like this tragedy happens,
it awakens something in all of us, and
you see a unity among people. This is
going to be a part of history, remembered
for a long time."
As the motorcade slowly wound its way
around the Mall, onlookers snapped photographs,
while others were brought to tears. Bikers,
joggers and tourists saluted or held their
hands over their hearts as Gibson's hearse
passed them.
Jonathan Stephens, 45, who works for the
U.S. Forest Service, said he wanted to
show his respect because he once worked
as an administrative aide at the Capitol.
"It just gives you the chills to see this,"
he said. "The pomp and circumstance of
the procession is overwhelming."
In the crowd of 500 people gathered on
the Capitol's west side was 11-year-old
Eugene Herring of Hamilton, N.J. "This
is sad, that a maniac can come to the
Capitol and shoot police," he said, adding
that "all these people have come out of
respect because those officers did their
job as they were supposed to do."
George Anderson, visiting Washington from
his home in Clearwater, Fla., learned
that the funeral procession was coming
as his family waited in line at the Bureau
of Engraving and Printing and decided
to stay and watch. "It touched me, the
way the whole nation was touched by it,"
he said of the shootings in one of the
nation's most treasured buildings. "It's
just [a] horrible waste. One insignificant
person made such an impact on so many
people today."
As the hundreds of police motorcycles
and cars -- first appearing in the summer
haze as one giant, unified vehicle --
rounded the Lincoln Memorial and started
over Memorial Bridge, a red D.C. rescue
boat in the Potomac River shot streams
of water several hundred feet into the
air. A line of officers on horseback met
the procession at the cemetery's front
gate.
When a cadre of officers waiting at Gibson's
grave site learned that the motorcade
had arrived -- more than an hour after
it had left the church -- they fell silent
and snapped to attention. Soon the haunting
sounds of police bagpipers from Chicago
and New York could be heard across the
nation's most hallowed military cemetery.
Although Gibson was not a military veteran,
he was granted special permission to be
buried at Arlington. His grave, under
a shady red maple tree in Section 28,
is in "a peaceful part of the cemetery,"
said Arlington historian Tom Sherlock,
"off the beaten track."
As four police helicopters flew past in
tribute, several officers in full dress
uniforms began succumbing to the heat.
Some were led away to air-conditioned
buses.
Although not a military funeral, the half-hour
service included a 21-gun salute and the
sounding of taps. Lynn Gibson, her children
seated next to her, was presented with
the American flag that had draped their
father's coffin. At the end of the ceremony,
she slowly stood and, leaning forward,
placed a long-stemmed red rose on her
husband's casket. Carved into the polished
dark wood surface was the name "John Michael
Gibson" and the emblem of the police department
he so loved.
(Funeral Coverage: Contributing to The
Post's coverage of U.S. Capitol Police
Detective John M. Gibson's funeral were
staff writers Erica Beshears, Justin Blum,
Jennifer 8. Lee, Ann O'Hanlon, Linda Wheeler
and Josh White. © 1998 The Washington
Post CO)
Jacob Chestnut laid to rest
The motorcade reached the grave site about
2 p.m. Chestnut's grave is at one of highest
points in the cemetery, a place once known
as Freedman's Village. 
Soon, Chestnut's family emerged from the
cars and took their places in velvet-covered
seats beneath an ivy-covered cherry tree.
One thousand arms saluted as the Air Force
Honor Guard carried the coffin to the
grave site. A seven-person Air Force firing
party shot three volleys, a 21-gun salute.
Then a lone bugler played taps, and as
the sad strains carried over the cemetery,
Chestnut's wife, and many others, began
weeping.
The Vietnam Security Police Association, Inc. (USAF) reported that JJ Chestnut had signed up
for he and his wife to attend this year's
reunion. VSPA Officers have decided to
dedicate this year's reunion in memory
of JJ.
VSPA members assemble for the final Guardmount
and roll call at J.J. Chestnut's gravesite,
Arlington (Section 4, #2764A), on October
10th, 1998. Gravesite photos: Left foreground,
Steve Ray, Mike Daoust, Steve Janke [chaplain]. Photo by Liz Shelt, Pat
Jacob Chestnut
... present
... accounted for
and Well Done....
Steve Ray 
Detail of mourning stripe on a Secret
Service officer's badge. (Craig Cola —
washingtonpost.com)
Arrangements for flowers and contributions
are in progress. Anyone wishing to contribute
to the fund may do so by writing the below
address. All funds --100%--raised will
go directly to the families of Jacob Chestnut
and fellow officer John Gibson. Single
checks will be given to the families by
the VSPA. Family wishes, when known, will
be respected by the Association. The VSPA
will post at this location the total funds
raised and the distribution made.
