The condition of the former mental patient accused of unleashing a deadly volley of gunshots in the US Capitol improved yesterday as Congressmen prepared to honour the two slain policemen hailed as heroes.
The suspected gunman, Russell Eugene Weston Jun (41), was upgraded from critical to serious condition in a local hospital from multiple gunshot wounds suffered as he tried to blast his way into the Capitol last Friday.
A memorial service is planned at the Capitol this week for the two dead officers, John Gibson (42) and Jacob Chestnut (58) who were shot down by Weston as he burst through a door often used by tourists.
A White House spokesman confirmed yesterday that both President Bill Clinton and the Vice-resident, Mr Al Gore, will attend the service. The policemen's bodies are likely to lie in state at the Capitol.
A 24-year-old tourist injured in the cross-fire, Ms Angela Dickerson, was released from hospital on Saturday.
Democratic House Leader, Mr Richard Gephardt of Missouri, said the two officers were expected to have their caskets displayed in the Capitol Rotunda and the public allowed to pay their respects, an honour normally accorded former presidents and military heroes.
"They are heroes and they saved lots of lives," Mr Gephardt said.
Hundreds of tourists wandered freely yesterday through the Capitol, a venerable landmark for many Americans. A panel barricade blocked off the area where the shooting occurred.
Meanwhile, the parents of Mr Weston, who live in Vallmeyer, Illinois, issued a statement apologising for the deaths of the officers. The statement, read by the Rev Robin Keating, offered sympathy to relatives of the dead officers and offered "our apologies to the nation as a whole for the trauma our son has caused".
Mr Weston, whose condition is described as "very serious" with bullet wounds to the legs and chest, has been charged with the murders of Officers Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson. He is heavily guarded and sedated in a Washington hospital after four hours of surgery.
Mr Weston's all-night drive to Washington began last Thursday after he shot a number cats belonging to his father, who ordered him out of the house. The son was on one of his infrequent visits to the family home from his log cabin in the old mining community of Rimini, Montana, where he lived on social security and did some gold panning.
Neighbours and police in Rimini have described a mentally-disturbed Mr Weston who would "go off the deep end" when he did not take his medication for his condition diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. He had been committed involuntarily to a mental hospital in Montana in October 1996 following complaints about his behaviour from neighbours.
He was released that December when the hospital deemed him no longer a threat to himself or others.
A man strongly resembling Mr Weston was reported to be lurking in a park across the road from the White House the morning of the shooting at the Capitol. He told a New York Times reporter he encountered that "millions of people are going to die because of the people you put in that house", gesturing at the White House.
At his Montana cabin, Mr Weston used to tell neighbours that he was a "close confidant" of the Kennedy family and that his knowledge about the assassination of President Kennedy was the reason the CIA and the FBI were out to assassinate him.