Baton Rouge LA June 22 2013 A Greenwell Springs man upset about losing his job allegedly told law enforcement officers Thursday that God told him to bring a BB gun to the State Capitol.Russell W. Vaughn, 11267 Creighton Drive, Greenwell Springs, faces charges of resisting an officer and disturbing the peace after creating concern about security measures at the State Capitol and annoying his neighbors.
State Police said they believe Vaughn is the man who carried a BB gun up the front steps of the State Capitol on Wednesday and pointed it at the building’s windows.
A state Senate security officer confiscated the gun but was unable to detain the man carrying it. The man left in a black Chrysler 300.
Early Thursday morning, Vaughn’s neighbors called the Sheriff’s Office and complained he was yelling and cursing in his back yard.
The neighbors told deputies Vaughn often screams curse words outside and they have had enough of it.
Vaughn claimed to be upset about losing his job, said Casey Rayborn Hicks, spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office.
State Police questioned Vaughn after an anonymous caller identified the 32-year-old as the man who brought the BB gun to the State Capitol.
“(Vaughn) said he was sent there by God,” State Police Col. Mike Edmonson said.
State Police said Vaughn owns a black Chrysler 300 and made incriminating statements during questioning.
Edmonson said the incident brings into question whether security measures need to be improved at the State Capitol, where Gov. Bobby Jindal has an office and hundreds of people work.
“To me, it’s important that procedures are in place. That’s what I’m reviewing. Public safety needs to be a priority,” Edmonson said.
Conflicting versions of what happened on the front steps during Wednesday’s rainstorm were circulating around the State Capitol.
One version said security told Vaughn to stay put on the steps while they called officers who patrol the downtown state government campus.
Senate spokeswoman Brenda Hodge said the man ran and got in his car instead of obeying the order to remain where he was.
State Police contend Vaughn “refused to put down the rifle and ignored all directives from security.”
How security got the weapon without holding onto Vaughn is unclear.
Both the Senate and House have their own security teams.
Officers direct visitors to walk through metal detectors at the building’s entrances.
They monitor doorways and meeting rooms. The officers generally carry radios, not weapons.
Armed State Police troopers guard the governor, who was in north Louisiana for much of Wednesday.
Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, said he is uncertain whether it is even a crime to have a BB gun on the State Capitol grounds. He said his security team saw the man climbing the Capitol steps and intervened even though they were not armed.
“They may deserve a medal,” Alario said.
He said he does have concerns that the man was not identified and detained.
Other incidents have happened over the years.
In 2006, a Hurricane Katrina evacuee threw a trash can through a glass door at the State Capitol and demanded to see then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco. The man screamed obscenities and asked where Blanco was.
Nearly a decade earlier, State Capitol security officers arrested radio talk show host Robert Namer — a longtime friend of former Gov. Mike Foster — after spotting an ankle holster on him.
Namer did not have a gun and later sued over the incident.
source-The Advocate