A man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck outside the Library of Congress surrendered to Capitol Police Thursday following hours of negotiations and evacuations. According to law enforcement, the man surrendered peacefully. The man drove a black pickup truck onto the sidewalk of the Library of Congress Thursday morning, prompting the […]
A man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck outside the Library of Congress surrendered to Capitol Police Thursday following hours of negotiations and evacuations.
According to law enforcement, the man surrendered peacefully.
The man drove a black pickup truck onto the sidewalk of the Library of Congress Thursday morning, prompting the police to respond to a disturbance call, according to the New York Times.
When officers arrived at the scene, the man said he had a bomb and one of the officers observed what appeared to be a detonator in his hand, Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Capitol Police said.
The police spent several hours negotiating with him, though it was unclear whether he actually had explosives.
“We don’t know what his motives are at this time,” Chief Manger said. He confirmed that some of those negotiations had been streamed live on social media.
“We’re trying to get as much information as we can to try to find a way to peacefully resolve this,” he said.
The man, identified as Floyd Ray Roseberry from North Carolina, was making anti-government statements, law enforcement said.
Because of Congress’ August recess, many congressional staffers were not on Capitol Hill when the complex went into lockdown.
The Supreme Court building was evacuated shortly after 10 a.m. and as the police investigated, they shut down several nearby streets around the 100 block of First Street SE. Technicians from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the officers at the scene.
Just before 11 a.m., dozens of people flooded out of the Madison building, after being instructed to evacuate.
