Yea though I walk through the valley...

Today at approximately 1440 (according to reports), Larry Russell Dawson was shot by a Capitol Police Officer in the Capitol Visitor Center after setting off a metal detector and removing what appeared to be a gun from his clothing. I saw none of this even though it happened along one of my frequent walking routes.

Before heading out on a glorious spring afternoon, I captured the DC skyline from the top of the parking garage that I frequent.

DC Skyline from the top of Building 28

Apart from the striking blue of the sky (the dark ages are finally over, I think) with a scattering of cumulous clouds, I noticed that more of the scaffolding put up in support of the Capitol Dome restoration project had been removed over the weekend. I headed out to try and capture some panoramas of the dome as the process of the unveiling progresses.

On my way up Capitol Hill, Rory Conlan informed me that there had been a shooting at the Capitol earlier in the morning and that a police officer had been injured by a self-proclaimed "prophet of god." Rory also suggested that the security situation might be tighter than I have become accustomed to experiencing. When I walked up East Capitol Street, the area had been secured by yellow tape emblazoned with "Police Line, Do Not Cross" and there were a number of Capitol Police Officers about in numbers that were slightly higher than normal. Other than that there were at least five television broadcast vans and ten camera and lighting setups with various reporters talking about what I presume to be the earlier incident.

The police tape did keep me far enough away from the Capitol that I couldn't get a very good angle to see the work on the dome since the sun was setting as a backdrop. This is the best that I could manage, and the tree in the foreground really takes away from what was really a pretty neat view.

Capitol Building with Scaffolding being Removed

I'll have to give it another "shot" (no pun intended) tomorrow. I would like to capture a semi-comprehensive set of photos documenting the transformation of the Capitol from restoration site to fully unmasked in the coming weeks.

I managed another safe commute to and from work today, and I'm grateful that the most dangerous activity that I participated in all day (the commute) came off without incident. We'll see what happens tomorrow. It's been an interesting several days already.