SoCal man allegedly took a guillotine to Washington. Was it a political statement or an art piece?

A Southern California man who had a guillotine in the back of his pickup truck was arrested Tuesday near the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, authorities said.

U.S. Capitol Police on Tuesday said officers had arrested a 35-year-old San Diego County man on suspicion of carrying a dangerous weapon — the guillotine. Police said his name is Philan-Tam-Duy Le, but he told The Times he goes by Philan Le.

“It was meant as a conceptual art piece,” Le said in a text after a judge released him on Wednesday. Le said he built the guillotine himself using several saws, two-by-four wood planks, lag screws and an impact drill.

Le said he wanted to “show what one person could do” and highlight how people’s thoughts and actions affect the world.

His goal, he said, was to provoke questions about who the guillotine was for and why it was there, adding, “If you keep pulling at that thread, it would reveal things about the world around you and possibly the shadow of your own self.”

Le said he is set to return to court Sept. 24.

His brother Kelvin Le told The Times on Tuesday night that he recognized the black truck in the photographs shared by police as his brother’s.

A guillotine stands in the bed of a pickup. Philan-Tam-Duy Le of Julian, Calif., was arrested on suspicion of carrying a dangerous weapon.

(U.S. Capitol Police)

Philan Le is a resident of the small town of Julian in San Diego County, authorities said, and drove across the country from California.

Reached by phone Tuesday evening, Le’s older brother said that the guillotine was probably intended as a “symbol of disapproval.”

“I don’t think he’d hurt anyone,” said Kelvin Le, a production planner in Vista, who was surprised to learn of the arrest.

Philan Le enjoyed going on road trips around the country. He grew up in Carlsbad, briefly worked as a cook in a Vietnamese restaurant in Las Vegas, and had been living in Julian for a number of years, his brother said.

A free spirit, his brother said he would fund his travels by working as a tattoo artist and making earrings and other piercings. “He built a lot of things with his hands,” Kelvin Le said.

Philan Le has been generally unhappy with the state of politics, his brother said. He isn’t a fan of either major political party and dislikes both California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Trump, Kelvin Le said.

He said Philan Le didn’t like to say what specific government policies he is against.

Department investigators “are going through the suspect’s background to learn more about why he came to Washington, D.C.,” Capitol police said in a statement.

Police officers described the guillotine as roughly 10 feet tall and fully functioning, equipped with “what appeared to be a metal blade sharpened at an angle,” according to the department’s arrest record.

The pickup truck, officials said, was illegally parked along the 100 block of East Capitol Street, where the U.S. Supreme Court building is also located. The block is near the U.S. Capitol and the Library of Congress.