Thursday, October 3, 2013

Breaking: Gunfire outside U.S. Capitol

Breaking: Gunfire outside U.S. Capitol

Attempt to ram White House gate ends with female suspect dead

Published: 1 hour ago
Garth Kant is WND Washington news editor. Previously, he spent five years writing, copy-editing and producing at "CNN Headline News," three years writing, copy-editing and training writers at MSNBC, and also served several local TV newsrooms as producer, executive producer and assistant news director. He is the author of the McGraw-Hill textbook, "How to Write Television News."

Photo: WND
WASHINGTON — An attempt to ram the White House gates ended with shots fired at the U.S. Capitol, senators put under lockdown and a female suspect dead, sources told ABC News.
A Capitol police officer was also reported shot, sources said.
Secret Service pursued a suspect from the White House to the Capitol. One agent in a marked Secret Service vehicle was injured when the car in which he was chasing the suspect was upended by one of the Capitol’s electronic barricades as it rose out of the ground, reports ABC.
Fox News reported at least one person was taken away on a stretcher.

A visitor from Malta, Rudolfo Giancarlo, told WND there was a “black sports car” speeding.
“We thought it was moving out of the way [of police].”
An American government worker said he had been in the vicinity of the Navy Yard shootings several weeks ago.
“I thought it’s the Navy Yard all over again.”
Capitol Police told WND after the lockdown was lifted the shots were from one shooting, and the suspect was “down.”
Three senators tell ABC News they heard gunfire on Capitol Hill.
“We heard pops that sounded like shots,” said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.
“We heard shots. They told us to get behind a car,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
National Review’s Robert Costa was reported to be on the scene, and officers sounded frantic in reporting the situation, “lots of scratchy noise and screams.”
He reported a lockdown had been announced when shots were heard.
The FBI was responding to the scene. A message from the Capitol Police ordered anyone in a House office to “shelter in place.”
A police helicopter carrying armed officers landed on the adjacent National Mall.
NBC reported those in the area had been warned, to “close, lock and stay away from external doors and windows.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., tweeted: Shots fired outside the Capitol. We are in temporary lock down.
Pennsylvania Avenue is closed in the area and tourists have been evacuated.
NBC News correspondent Luke Russert reported hearing three or four booms from his office and seeing 40-50 people hit the ground.
Only hours earlier, late Wednesday, Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., was reported to be the victim of a “minor incident” outside Capitol complex.
“A random individual, unknown to the congressman, began screaming at him and grabbed his arm,” a spokesman in Duffy’s office said.
The congressman was unhurt.
His office said, “He reported the incident in compliance with House security procedures. Congressman Duffy has requested no further action be taken and there will be no further comment on the matter at this time.”
A White House official said the president was briefed on the reports of gunfire.
On September 16, a deadly shooting occurred at the Navy Yard, just blocks south of the U.S. Capitol complex, which contributed to a partial lockdown of the Capitol at that time.
A shooting on July 24, 1998 left two Capitol Police officers dead.

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