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 The man, who was wearing a backpack and had carried a rolling
suitcase and a sign to the site, fired a single shot at himself,
Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine told reporters.
Dine said the man's sign bore a social justice message but he did
not elaborate.
Authorities said they placed the Capitol on a lockdown as a
precaution. A bomb squad technician examined the suitcase and the
backpack and officials later gave the all-clear, lifting the
lockdown after more than two hours.
"There seems to be no nexus to terrorism or anything related to
that," Dine said.
The incident occurred as Congress was out of session and few
lawmakers were in town. But the city was crowded with tourists
visiting for the popular Cherry Blossom festival.
The disturbance blocked traffic but did not appear to disrupt most
visitors to Washington.
Robert Bishop, a real estate developer from Annapolis, Maryland, who
was visiting Washington and was at the scene of the shooting, said
the man who killed himself had a sign that he thinks said, "Tax the
1 percent."
The deadline for Americans to submit their tax returns is Wednesday.
The man shot himself next to a fountain between the Capitol building
and a street. About 50 people were in the area at the time, Bishop
said.
"Everybody started ducking and started to run," he said.
Washington's Metropolitan Police Department, which is handling the
investigation into the man's death, had not released his name late
on Saturday.
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Bishop described the man as "an older gentleman."
Lawmakers are due to return to work on Monday.
The shooting is the latest in a string of security incidents at
high-profile buildings in the nation's capital.
In 2013, police shot and killed a woman after she rammed security
barricades with her car near the White House before racing toward
the Capitol. Also in 2013, a government contractor opened fire at
the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 people.
More recently, a man pleaded guilty to charges of running into the
White House in September armed with a knife before being tackled, a
security breach that helped lead to a shake-up in the U.S. Secret
Service.
(Reporting by Sandra Maler, Susan Heavey, Yeganeh Torbati, Roberta
Rampton, Eric Walsh in Washington and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los
Angeles,; Editing by Frances Kerry and Marguerita Choy)
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