3 Injured, 3 In Custody After SUV Rams Security Gate At NSA
FORT MEADE, Maryland (WJZ/AP) — Police responded to an incident Wednesday morning outside the National Security Agency campus at Fort Meade, which involved an SUV ramming a security barrier and eventually gunshots.
Three people, all male, were inside the SUV, and they are in custody. One was injured and taken to a hospital.
A total of three people were injured -- one of the occupants of the vehicle, an NSA police officer and a civilian onlooker who was in the vicinity of where the crash happened.
It is not believed that any of the injuries sustained were from gunfire.
"Preliminary, it looks like the gunfire was directed at the vehicle, but we are working through that right now," says Gordon B. Johnson, Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore FBI Field Office. He would not comment on whether an NSA officer discharged a weapon, however.
Johnson also says investigators believe what occurred was an isolated incident and unrelated to terrorism.
"At approximately 6:55 a.m., a vehicle made unauthorized access to the NSA compound and NSA police responded accordingly," he said.
The FBI is conducting interviews and collecting evidence "so that we can understand what happened here today," he added.
One of the questions they still have is why gunshots were fired, according to Johnson.
"This vehicle did come onto NSA's compound unauthorized, and NSA has a series of protocols that they respond to these types of events, so that is part of our investigation and one of the questions we're trying to answer as we speak."
Despite prominent highway signs, drivers occasionally take the wrong exit and end up at the tightly secured gates. Most motorists then carefully follow the orders of heavily armed federal officers and turn around without getting into more trouble.
When asked if what occurred Wednesday morning could have stemmed from someone mistakenly taking the wrong exit, Johnson said question number one for investigators is "what put these individuals on this compound earlier this morning?"
Watch Johnson's full statements below.
In early 2015, two people were shot at by NSA police when they disobeyed orders outside the heavily secured campus. One driver died at the scene after NSA police opened fire on a stolen sports utility vehicle. Authorities later said they had stolen a car from a man who picked them up for a party at a motel.
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