Police arrest armed man on roof of building overlooking Gen. Lee statue

Police in Richmond, Va., have arrested a 38-year-old white man who was allegedly standing on the roof of a building overlooking the city’s Robert E. Lee monument with a weapon on Saturday.

The man, Riley O’Shaughnessey, works as an officer with the Richmond International Airport Police Department, the Richmond Police Department confirmed in a Saturday statement.

Authorities said they were called at 6:30 a.m. the same day after a person at the monument spotted a man apparently surveilling it from the roof of an unoccupied building.

When an officer arrived, “eyewitnesses told him they had seen the individual on the roof with a firearm.”

Police said they arrested the man “just outside the building,” and he was armed with a handgun at approximately 7:47 a.m.

O’Shaughnessey has been charged with trespassing, which is a misdemeanor. Authorities did not file a weapons charge because the handgun “was being carried lawfully,” according to the Richmond Police Department

The man was not carrying law enforcement identification at the time of his arrest.