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Donald Phillip Henson was captured seven hours after fleeing the
crash and invoked a Latin phrase about tyrants, “sic semper
tyrannis,” meaning “thus always to tyrants," while talking to
the FBI, according to an affidavit. John Wilkes Booth is said to
have shouted the phrase after shooting President Abraham
Lincoln.
Henson, 46, of nearby Penn Hills, was being charged with assault
with a deadly weapon and damaging government property. He will
remain in custody until a detention hearing set for Tuesday.
“This was a targeted attack on this building,” Christopher
Giordano, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in
Pittsburgh, told reporters. No personnel were injured.
No details on motive or how he was able to flee were immediately
available.
The FBI was familiar with Henson, whom Giordano described as a
former member of the military. Public records list him as a
Republican who voted in the 2024 general election. A message
left at a phone number linked to him was not immediately
returned and court records did not list a defense lawyer.
“He did come here to the FBI field office a few weeks ago to
make a complaint that didn’t make a whole lot of sense,”
Giordano said.
He said the car appeared to have some sort of message on a side
window, but did not elaborate. The car, a white sedan, also
appeared to have a U.S. Air Force sticker on it.
Investigators, including a bomb squad, found no explosives at
the crash.
According to the affidavit, the security officer saw the vehicle
come down the street and ram the gate, but thought the driver
was having a medical emergency. The officer intended to leave
the booth to investigate, but when the suspect returned to the
car for the flag, the officer stayed inside fearing he might be
retrieving a weapon.
Henson, in a bankruptcy filing last year, said he had $380,000
in student loan debt, few assets, a shuttered business called
Insomnia Solutions, and $281 a month in income.
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Dale reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writer Kathy
McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, also contributed.
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