A man fatally shot himself after ramming his car into a security barricade at the Capitol early Sunday morning, police said.
U.S. Capitol Police said in a brief statement that an unidentified man exited his vehicle after crashing it around 4 a.m., after which the vehicle “became engulfed in flames.”
The man then “fired several shots into the air” and shot himself as officers approached, police said.
Nobody else was injured in the incident and the man did not seem to be targeting members of Congress, which is in recess, according to the police.
“[I]t does not appear officers fired their weapons,” the Capitol Police said.
An investigation is underway into the man’s background, according to authorities. D.C. police are “handling the death investigation.”
A tow truck removes a car that crashed into a Capitol barricade in Washington, Aug. 14, 2022.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Other details were not immediately released.
The incident comes amid what law enforcement has called heightened concerns of political violence — and in the shadow of alarming attacks at the Capitol in the past two years.
A Capitol Police officer was killed in a car-ramming attack in April 2021 just months after the deadly insurrection in which a violent mob ransacked the building and sent lawmakers temporarily into hiding.
Several officers died following that riot, including some from suicide.