Sound Of Gunfire In House Office Building

[Gold9472]

Sound of gunfire in House office building

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Sound_of_gunfire_in_House_office_0526.html

Published: Friday May 26, 2006

The U.S. Capitol has once again been put under lock-down as Capitol Hill Police continue to investigate "the sound of gunfire" in the garage of the Rayburn Congressional office building across from the Capitol.

Sgt. Kimberley Schneider has told reporters that "several" tactical units are searching the entire Rayburn building, including the firing range. Sounds that seemed to be gunfire were reported to have come from the lowest level of the Rayburn office garage, labeled G3. There is no confirmation on the number of "shots" heard. The information was called in to Capitol Hill police at 10:33 EST.

Witnesses have reported a gunman inside the Rayburn gymnasium.

One aide tells RAW STORY that Capitol Police have identified gunpowder in an area outside the building's firing range. This has also been reported by CNN, but is still unconfirmed by police.

Five ambulances have arrived on the scene, and though one has backed up to an entrance for the Rayburn building and a gurney has been unloaded, the crew has not reportedly entered the building.

At this time, there are no suspects and no injuries have been reported. "Right now, we want to err on the side of caution," Schneider told reporters at a newsconference. "The report has been that there are shots fired."

Law enforcement experts for other news agencies are reporting that the ambulances are standard procedure after such an incident.

One Democratic aide tells RAW STORY he saw police running down the hall, seeming somewhat frantic, shouting "get out of the way, get out of the way."

The following message went out to staff:

Subject: An Emergency Exists for the Rayburn HOB - Shelter in Place

This is a message from the U.S. Capitol Police 1. If you are in the Rayburn HOB then Shelter in Place. Quickly move into the nearest interior office space or interior hallway and away from windows. The Capitol Police are investigating reports of gunfire in the Rayburn HOB. 2. If nearby, grab Go-Kits and personal belongings. 3. Close doors behind you, but do not lock. 4. Remain calm. 5. Await further instructions. Do not leave the building.

Though the Capitol was temporarily re-opened, status of the Rayburn building has remained unchanged. Additionally, tourists are now reportedly being moved down the hill, urged according to individual Capitol Hill police by the presence of a gun.

Aides have confirmed to RAW STORY that their understanding is that the Capitol is once again on lock-down. However, Schneider denied this claim, or knowledge of these events, at the news conference.

Another email has been sent to staffers in Rayburn, confirming the status for the building and garage.

Passageways between the Capitol and Rayburn building are currently closed, and traffic moving in the direction of Rayburn is closed off for the time being.

Earlier, those found wandering in the Capitol hallways had been instructed to return to their offices as Capitol police went room to room in the Capitol to investigate the report. Doors had been sealed, but not locked.

A House intelligence committee hearing interrupted testimony and sealed doors. Members are still reportedly inside.

Reporters have been locked in the basement cafeteria, a Fox News correspondent says. The correspondent said that Capitol police shouted at those present not to leave the room.

Capitol Hill police plan to hold a news conference at 12:00 EST.

[Tonya]

ABC news webite has a "breaking news" banner that says something about a woman being taken away on a stretcher.

[Gold9472]

Capitol Police Probe Report of Gunshots
Capitol Police Investigate Reports of Sounds of Gunfire in Capitol Office Building Parking Garage

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2008556

By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON May 26, 2006 (AP)— Police investigated reports of gunfire in a House office building on Friday and sealed off the Capitol as a precaution. Police said there were no immediate injuries or arrests.

"The report is that shots were fired" at 10:30 a.m. EDT in the garage of the Rayburn House Office Building, said Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider.

"We have not gotten any reports of anybody being captured, anybody being arrested." She also said there were no reports of injuries.

On high alert, police lined the street between the Capitol and the Rayburn building, rifles prominently displayed, and four ambulances were on standby outside the office structure.

Schneider said the search and police deployment was triggered by one telephone call from an unidentified individual.

The Senate was in session at the time, but the House was not as most lawmakers had left for the Memorial Day recess.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., conducting a House Intelligence Committee hearing, interrupted a witness to request those attending the meeting to remain in the room and said the doors must be closed.

"It's a little unsettling to get a Blackberry message put in front of you that says there's gunfire in the building," he said.

The Rayburn House Office Building was completed in early 1965 and is the third of three office buildings constructed for the U.S. House of Representatives. It sits across the street from the Capitol. The building has four stories above ground, two basements and three levels of underground garage space.

Steven Broderick, press spokesman for Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., was in his car in the Rayburn garage Friday morning getting ready to drive his boss to the airport, when he was ordered by a Capitol Police officer to park the car and put his hands on the steering wheel. The officer then told him to run toward an exit where other officers where gathered.

"He just told me to run and don't look back," Broderick said.

The U.S. Capitol Police Department's Containment & Emergency Response Team maintains an indoor shooting range in the basement of the Rayburn building, according to the department's Web site. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's delegate to Congress, raised the possibility that noises from a nearby construction site were mistaken for gunfire.

Within minutes of the reports, Rayburn halls were virtually empty and police were not allowing anyone to leave or take elevators or stairs to the garage.

"No one's panicking, everyone's calm," said Charles Isom, spokesman for Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah. "It did ruin some people's lunch plans."

The incident occurred at the end of a week of unusually tumultuous series of events that ironically enough, began in the same building. FBI agents armed with a search warrant seized documents and computer material from the first office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., in a weekend raid. Jefferson is at the center of a federal bribery investigation.

At the Capitol, police quickly closed all doors, stopping people from either entering the building. Tourists were herded into a first-floor chamber in the middle of the building. Other corridors on the House side of the building, where lawmakers had already left for the recess, were deserted.

The Capitol was reopened within an hour, then sealed back off by police.

Jeff Connor, a spokesman for Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., said Capitol Hill police notified the office that gunfire was heard in the Rayburn building garage.

"They specifically said there was the sound of gunfire on one of the garage levels of the Rayburn House office building and asked staff to remain in their offices," Connor said.

Incidents of violence inside the Capitol and its office buildings are rare.

On July 24, 1998, a man with a history of mental illness shot and killed Capitol Police officer Jacob J. Chestnut at a first-floor Capitol entrance. He then charged into an adjacent suite of offices occupied by Tom DeLay, then the House Republican whip, and exchanged fire with officer John Gibson, who also was killed. The gunman was wounded and captured.

In 1983, a late-night bomb, possibly set by someone protesting U.S. military action in Grenada and Lebanon, exploded just outside the Senate chamber. No one was injured.

[Gold9472]

ABC news webite has a "breaking news" banner that says something about a woman being taken away on a stretcher.

You're sexy.

[Tonya]

you know it!
...anyhoo, that lady apparently was just suffering from anxiety (Rawstory)

[Gold9472]

you know it!
...anyhoo, that lady apparently was just suffering from anxiety (Rawstory)

How did a gun get in the capitol? Aren't there metal detectors everywhere?

[MikeJr.]

How did a gun get in the capitol? Aren't there metal detectors everywhere?

Just ask Cynthia McKinny.

[Gold9472]

REPORT: 'GUNSHOT' IN HOUSE OFFICE
BUILDING WAS JUST AIR HAMMER

[Partridge]

Whats an air hammer?

[Gold9472]

It's a hammer made of air.