A New York congressman is under fire after CCTV footage appeared to show him activating a House office building\u2019s internal alarm system, which Republicans are claiming was part of an effort to delay voting on a spending bill on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The congressman, Representative Jamaal Bowman, is in his second term representing the Empire State\u2019s 14th district, which includes parts of The Bronx, southern Westchester County, and Yonkers. <\/p>\n
After an emergency alarm was set off in the Cannon House Office Building, where Mr Bowman\u2019s office sits on the building\u2019s third floor, reports emerged that a man matching Mr Bowman\u2019s description had been seen pulling the alarm near a second-floor exit. <\/p>\n
The alarm was triggered as Democrats on the House floor were seeking to slow down consideration of a spending bill which House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had called up for debate less than an hour earlier. <\/p>\n
Democrats had expressed concerns that the bill, which extends government funding for 45 days, might contain objectionable provisions and had demanded more time to review it before voting.<\/p>\n
Paul Starks, a spokesperson for the US Capitol Police Department, said in a statement that an alarm was activated at 12.05 pm, leading to the entire Cannon building being evacuated to allow officers to search the. building.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe building was reopened after it was determined that there was not a threat. An investigation into what happened and why continues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A still taken from CCTV footage and circulated by the department showed a man of a similar build, appearance and dress to Mr Bowman activating a fire alarm while sporting a circular lapel pin resembling those issued to House members. <\/p>\n
Emma Simon, a spokesperson for Mr Bowman, said in a statement that he \u201cdid not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote\u201d and \u201cregrets any confusion\u201d.<\/p>\n
The congressman later told reporters: \u201cI thought the alarm would open the door\u201d.<\/p>\n
The second-floor door he is pictured in front of in the CCTV footage is marked as one that is connected to an alarm, as it is not protected by a police security checkpoint and therefore not normally used except as an emergency exit. <\/p>\n
A man said to be Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman appearing to set off a fire alarm in the Capitol as Congress raced to avoid a lockdown<\/p>\n
(Capitol Police)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear why Mr Bowman would have thought pulling a fire alarm would have had any impact on the door, which is required by law to be operable from inside the building in case of an emergency. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s also unclear how Mr Bowman could not have realised that activating an individual fire alarm would cause the alarm system in the building to be activated. <\/p>\n
The congressman is a former school principal, and as such, he would be familiar with the operation of fire alarm systems that are required by law to be installed in large public buildings. <\/p>\n
Activating a false fire alarm in the District of Columbia is a misdemeanour which can be punished by as many as six months in jail.<\/p>\n
The official account for the House Administration Committee, which oversees the House buildings and grounds, published a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) in the name of Chairman Bryan Steil which stated that the incident was being investigated and blamed Mr Bowman for the false alarm.<\/p>\n
Asked about the incident at a press conference Saturday afternoon, Mr McCarthy, the House Speaker, said the House Ethics Committee \u201cshould look\u201d at the situation and tacitly compared it to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is serious … when you think of how other people were treated when they wanted to come in and change the course of what was happening in this building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr McCarthy said he would discuss the situation with the House Democratic Leader, Rep Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and said it \u201cshould not go without punlshment\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an embarrassment. You are elected to be a member of Congress and you pulled a fire alarm? In the minutes and hours before the government being shut down trying to dictate that the government was shut down \u2014 what is going to a person\u2018s mind like that?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked about the incident a short time later, Mr Jeffries declined to weigh in, stating that he had not seen the CCTV footage at issue and would have \u201cno further comment\u201d until he does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A New York congressman is under fire after CCTV footage appeared to show him activating a House office building\u2019s internal alarm system, which Republicans are claiming was part of an effort to delay voting on a spending bill on Saturday. The congressman, Representative Jamaal Bowman, is in his second term representing the Empire State\u2019s 14th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n