Man Arrested With Guns Near Supreme Court Said He Was Delivering Documents

A Georgia man has been arrested on weapons charges following concerns about a "suspicious" van parked near the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) arrested the driver of the vehicle, 80-year-old Tony H. Payne of Tunnel Hill, Georgia, and charged him with offenses that included bringing weapons to the Capitol grounds on Wednesday.

Police discovered two handguns and a shotgun inside a small white van after being informed of the weapons by Payne. Another man and a woman, both unnamed by police, were accompanying Payne but were not arrested.

Payne and his companions said after being confronted that they were in the area "to deliver documents to the U.S. Supreme Court," according to USCP. There were no additional details about the nature of the purported documents.

Officers were alerted to the van after noticing that it was parked illegally near the Supreme Court. The USCP Hazardous Incident Response Division conducted a search of the vehicle and cleared it when a potentially suspicious pipe and containers were spotted inside.

USCP later clarified on Twitter that Payne was "facing three charges -- Unregistered Firearm, Unregistered Ammunition, and Carrying a Pistol without a License."

A spokesperson for USCP declined Newsweek's request for comment on Payne's arrest and the documents that he purportedly claimed to be delivering, explaining that the details are "all part of the ongoing investigation."

The arrest comes amid increased security concerns about potential threats to the Supreme Court justices and their families.

An armed man who was arrested near the Maryland home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on June 8 told police that he intended to kill Kavanaugh, partially due to anger over the Court's then-impending decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

There is no evidence to suggest that Payne's arrest was in any way related to the Court's recent abortion rights rollback or any other politically-charged issue.

However, criticism of the Court has been increasing following controversial decisions such as the overturning of Roe, which may have helped public trust levels in federal judiciary recently plummet to an all-time low.

A poll released by Gallup late last month found that only 47 percent of U.S. adults had either "a great deal" or "a fair amount" of trust in the judicial branch, a 20 percent decline from only two years ago.

In addition, a record 58 percent of poll respondents said that they did not approve of the job that the Supreme Court was doing, while only 40 percent said that they did approve.

The number of Americans who said that the Court had become "too conservative" also reached a record high of 42 percent, achieving a plurality for the first time since the poll began in 1993.

Update 10/19/22, 10:13 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and background.