Driver killed after chase from White House to Capitol
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/police-lock-down-capitol-after-shots-fired/2013/10/03/48459e0e-2c5a-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html
By Ed O’Keefe, Peter Hermann and David A. Fahrenthold,
Updated: Thursday, October 3, 11:38 PM E-mail the writers
A car chase that
began when an unknown driver tried to breach a White House security barrier
ended across downtown Washington,
when police shot and killed the driver on a street near the U.S. Capitol,
police said.
The woman driving the car was unarmed, law enforcement
sources said. All the shots in the incident, which ocurred about 2:20 p.m.,
were fired by police trying to stop her. A U.S. Capitol Police officer was also
injured when his car struck something during the chase.
Dine said that “we believe there was a child in the car”
with the woman during the chase. Afterward, a child was taken to the hospital
with serious but not life-threatening injuries.
The chase and the shootings triggered a brief lockdown in
the Capitol, which was full of lawmakers and staff focused on the ongoing
government shutdown. Officers ran through the ornate hallways carrying
semiautomatic weapons, triggering a tense half hour as employees were told to
‘shelter in place’. But no one in the Capitol complex was hurt, and the House
resumed its business before 4 p.m.
Dine said that shots
may also have been fired near the beginning of the chase, when uniformed Secret
Service officers first tried to stop the woman’s car near the White House.
“We have no information that this is related to terrorism,
or is anything other than an isolated incident,” Dine said. He gave no
information about the driver’s identity, or a possible motive.
The chase apparently stretched across downtown Washington: it started
at the security barriers outside one icon, and ended at the barriers outside
another.
Oregon residents B.J. and
Susan Campbell saw a black sedan driven by a woman heading west on Pennsylvania, into a
security checkpoint at 15th Street
and Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
The driver went about 20 yards, B.J. Campbell said, before rapidly turning the
car around at the concrete security barriers.
“The Secret Service guy was just having a cow,” B.J.
Campbell said. “Yelling at her and banging on the car.” The Secret Service
officers pulled a black metal gate into her path and she slowed to try to go
around it. Then the agent moved the gate in front of her again.
At that point “she just gunned it,” B.J. Campbell said. “She
ran the barricade down and the guy; knocked him up onto her hood. He rolled off
into the street, and she tore off down Pennsylvania Avenue.” The whole encounter
lasted about 20 seconds, he said.
Another witness said the man was an off-duty officer in
plain clothes holding a lunch cooler in his hand.
A few moments later and about 1.7 miles away, eyewitnesses
reported seeing a black car speeding through Capitol Hill streets, pursued by
several police vehicles.
“At first I thought the driver was trying to get out of the
way of police, but then I realized [the car] was being chased,” said Giancarlo
Refalo, a tourist from Malta.
Refalo said he heard several gunshots followed by “lots of
screaming and shouting.” Then the black vehicle came back on First Street toward Constitution chased
by police. “They were swerving all over the place,” he said. “By that time I
was hiding in the bushes because I was so scared.”
“We was up at the Capitol, seeing some of the protesters,
saw five or six cop cars chasing that car,” said Ryan Christiansen, from Idaho Falls, Idaho.
He said it was a small black car and that police chased it “around and around”
a traffic circle near the Capitol.
That was confirmed by video taken by the channel Alhurra,
which showed officers pointing guns at a black sedan at the foot of Capitol
Hill. The sedan then sped away from the officers, circled around two different traffic
circles, and then spent east on Constitution Avenue toward the top of Capitol
Hill.
“I thought it was a motorcade,” Christiansen said.
The driver “was pulling away, and somewhere between six and
eight shots were fired,” Christiansen said. Police tried to use their vehicles
to block the car, but the driver “got out of that and got away,” he said.
He said he heard the shots and police told them all to hit
the ground.
David Loewenberg, 21, an intern with the Education
Department, arrived shortly after the shots were fired near the Capitol.
“I saw a police officer hugging a small child, taking her
away,” Loewenberg said, adding that the child appeared to be less than 5 years
old.
At the same time,
Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) was on a balcony of the Capitol building. “It
was almost like two very rapid-fire bursts, very loud,” Connolly said. He was
standing with Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) when they heard two bursts of
gunfire. Connolly thought the shots had come from the opposite direction,
toward the House office buildings to the south.
After the shots, Connolly said, “that’s when we saw people
fleeing, and we realized this was no fireworks,” Connolly said. “It sounds
liked the first volley of a 21 -gun salute.”
Connolly said he could see people fleeing the Rayburn Building and police officers running
toward it before he was shepherded back into the building. The D.C. Fire and
Emergency Medical Services Department said one person was transported to a
hospital for treatment.
The order sent to Capitol personnel began with an all-caps
message: SHELTER IN PLACE.
“Gunshots have been reported on Capitol Hill requiring staff in all Senate
Office Buildings to immediately shelter in place. Close, lock and stay away
from external doors and windows,” said the message, sent by Capitol Police.
Afterward, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) took to
Twitter to thank the police. “We all owe the Capitol Police a debt of gratitude
for their work every day; no finer examples of professionalism & bravery,”
Boehner wrote.
On the House floor, legislators rose for a round of applause
after Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) praised the Capitol Police for
providing protection for the Capitol complex.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) spoke after the
round of applause, telling the police force, “We really appreciate it.”
The chamber also stood and applauded for the staff of the
House Sergeant at Arms.