The police arrested Thursday, August 19 a man sitting in a vehicle parked near the Capitol, Washington, and claiming to have explosives. The threat of this man, who surrendered after negotiations with the police, caused the deployment of a strong security device around the seat of the United States Congress and led to the evacuation of several buildings in the American federal capital.
The suspect “Got out of his vehicle and surrendered”Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said at a press conference. It was placed “In detention without incident”, he said, while admitting that he did not yet know if any explosives were in the vehicle. On images of the NBC channel, we can see the suspect get out of his vehicle, raise his arms while kneeling and then crawl towards the police.
“The driver of the van told the officer who arrived at the scene that he had a bomb and it appeared, according to the officer, that there was a detonator in the hand of this individual”, Mr. Manger had said, before the individual surrendered. “We don’t know what his motivations are at this stage”, he had then specified.
Investigators have no evidence to suggest that the suspect had accomplices. “I believe his mother had recently passed away, and we spoke with members of his family, he was struggling with other issues.”, noted Mr. Manger.
There, the memory of the violent assault of January 6 and a deadly car-ramming attack on April 2 remains vivid.
The 49-year-old suspect was identified as Floyd Ray Roseberry by police. Earlier, a white man with a shaved, bearded head posted a video on Facebook on an account named Ray Roseberry. He was making threats there.
“I will not move from here”the man said on the tape. “Shoot me”, he said, defying the camera and threatening to detonate the bomb he claimed to have. “They have to get Joe Biden here. “ Facebook has since made its profile unavailable and is investigating the facts, a spokesperson for the social network told Agence France-Presse.
“Around 9:15 am this morning, a man in a black pickup truck drove on the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress”, explained Mr. Manger at a press conference. “This is an investigation for a bomb threat”, had specified the police of the Capitol in the middle of the morning, after having reported investigating a “Suspicious vehicle near the Library of Congress”.
Evacuated buildings
The White House reported “Monitor the situation” and be regularly informed by the police. Many law enforcement vehicles and ambulances were positioned at midday around the perimeter of the Capitol. The FBI and Washington Police were on site with the Capitol Police. All surrounding buildings have been evacuated, according to police, including the Supreme Court and the headquarters of the Republican Party.
Law enforcement was calling to avoid the area around the Library of Congress, which faces Congress, across a street and a park. The Washington Metro announced that its trains were avoiding the Capitol South stop “Because of a police investigation”.
The Capitol grounds have been under tight security since the deadly assault carried out on January 6 by supporters of Donald Trump. Hundreds of pro-Trump protesters then forced Congress into entry while parliamentarians gathered inside to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over incumbent Republican President.
More recently, on April 2, a policeman was killed and another injured when a young man threw his car against a roadblock protecting the entrance, before being shot.