2nd Fallen Officer Buried Amid Tributes

One week after being gunned down on the job, Capitol Police Officer Jacob J. Chestnut was buried with honors Friday at Arlington National Cemetery after a funeral service of solemn pageantry and effusive praise.

About 3,500 mourners, including Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), FBI Director Louis J. Freeh and countless police officers from around the nation, attended the service in suburban Maryland.

Chestnut’s body was then taken in a miles-long cortege to its final resting place at the cemetery.

Chestnut, 58, and his colleague, Det. John M. Gibson, 42, were killed trying to stop a gunman from storming his way into the halls of Congress.

The suspected killer, Russell Eugene Weston Jr., remained in a Washington hospital Friday, recovering from gunshot wounds.

Friday’s motorcade lasted more than an hour and largely mirrored Gibson’s on Thursday, with tourists, pedestrians and lunchtime joggers stopping to stand in silent, respectful attention as the hearse passed. It ended at Arlington almost exactly seven days to the hour after the shooting.

The motorcade snaked slowly past the Capitol, where flags remain at half-staff and thousands of flowers have been left on the steps.

In between tributes from dignitaries, family and churchmen, a gospel choir of police officers and local parishioners provided resounding renditions of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and other hymns at the 2 1/2-hour service at Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Fort Washington, Md.

“Before he was this hero of democracy, before a [Capitol Building] door was named after him, before he was the first African American to be lain in state, before he was mourned all over the world, he was neighbor, friend, husband and, to me, he was Daddy,” Chestnut’s daughter, Karyn, said in her eulogy.

“It’s not the way that he died that made him a hero, but it’s the way that he lived,” Capitol Hill Police Chief Gary Abrecht said.

“They call him the hero here, but he’s always been my hero,” said Henry Chestnut, the officer’s brother. “A bullet struck him down, but it cannot strike down the love that he had for his family--and all of you. A bullet cannot strike down the system or the institution of law and order.”

Chestnut, a husband and father of five, served in the Vietnam War and was a 20-year Air Force veteran.