Washington: Police fired on a car trying to enter the highly secure National Security Agency campus near the nation’s capital, killing one person and wounding another in an incident the FBI said wasn’t related to terrorism.
A car tried to enter the gate of NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, and NSA police opened fire, said a law enforcement official, who requested anonymity because the official was not authorised to speak publicly. The official said there may have been an exchange of gunfire.
Federal law enforcement officials said that two people in a car tried to ram the spy agency’s gate and initial indications are that at least one was seriously injured. The motive was unknown but the incident was not related to terrorism, the officials said. The FBI is investigating.
One federal law enforcement official said the incident appeared to be a local criminal matter.
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said: “The President has been briefed on this morning’s incident at the National Security Agency and will be updated as appropriate.”
NBC, quoting sources, said the men, disguised as women, were in a stolen car. A guard shot at least one of the men and a gun and drugs were found in the vehicle, a Ford Escape.
The NSA is investigating the incident, which occurred about 32km northeast of Washington, NBC said.
Television helicopter video footage showed two damaged vehicles outside the gates and at least one person in uniform being wheeled to an ambulance.
One of the vehicles was marked ‘police’ on the side and had its hood up. The other, a dark vehicle, had front-end damage.
An NSA spokeswoman had no immediate comment. Spokesmen for Fort Meade and Anne Arundel County Police referred questions to the spy agency.
Fort Meade, a 5,000-acre highly secured military installation between Baltimore and Washington, has expanded since 2010 to include the US Cyber Command, the Defence Information Systems Agency and US Fleet Cyber Command, the Navy’s headquarters for computer security.
The NSA is the nation’s top surveillance agency and is responsible for collecting information on foreign threats. For almost two years, the agency has been caught up in a dispute over its interception of communications of foreign leaders and others, sparked by former US contractor Edward Snowden’s release of confidential documents. The NSA has about 42,000 government and contract workers.
WRC-TV in Washington reported that an NSA security officer was taken to the hospital.
Earlier this month, the NSA reported damage to one of its buildings from gunshots, and police later arrested a 35-year-old man and accused him of shooting at five public places in Maryland.
