He returned hours later with an assault-style rifle after bailing himself out.
Shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday, a shirtless man with a leashed dog and a handgun in a holster approached the security desk outside the governor’s office at the Capitol and said he would not leave until he spoke to Gov. Tony Evers, Tatyana Warrick, communications director at the Wisconsin Department of Administration, said Thursday. Since it’s illegal to openly carry a firearm in the Wisconsin Capitol, the man was arrested.
The man, who has not been named, was taken to the Dane County Jail and his firearm was seized as evidence, Warrick said. The dog was turned over to the city animal control.
The man bailed himself out, but at around 9 p.m., he returned to the exterior of the Capitol with a loaded “AK-47-style” rifle and again asked to see the governor, Warrick said.
In June, a Windsor man who was initially charged with threatening Evers was sentenced to over a year in prison after pleading guilty to threatening a Dane County official, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. Michael A. Yaker, 53, had been accused of threatening state officials, including the governor, via social media, email, voicemail and other means, the news outlet reported.