UPDATE: The guard has died of his injuries, for the latest on this breaking news click here.
SUITLAND, Md. — A guard at the U.S. Census Bureau headquarters was shot and critically wounded on Thursday evening.
The U.S. Census Bureau released a statement on Twitter about the incident:
There has been an incident at the Suitland Federal Center and there is an ongoing investigation. We are committed to the safety of all staff who work at the Census Bureau and are currently making sure that everyone is safe and secure. We will provide more details as they become available.
Earlier, Prince George’s County Fire Department spokesman Mark Brady said in a text message that the guard, who was at one of the campus’s gates, had a gunshot wound to his upper body and was taken to a local hospital in extremely critical condition.
The Census Bureau is located in Suitland, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
The situation ended sometime around 9 p.m., and several tweets indicated that employees were finally seen leaving the building after an “all clear” was given.
Shortly after 9 p.m. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier held a press conference to discuss updates on the situation, and she said that three events from the night are linked–a kidnapping, the shooting at the Census Bureau, and another police chase and shooting.
Based on tweets from the DC Police, it seems the series of events began with an armed kidnapping on T Street in northeast Washington at 5:34 p.m. Later, around 7:30 p.m., there was a police-involved shooting on H Street after a car chase led officers there.
It seems that during the two hours between those incidents is when the shooting at the Census Bureau occurred.
The suspect and presumably the kidnapping victim were in a car that approached the Census Bureau, and the guard saw them arguing. When he approached he was shot.
During the H Street interaction a shootout occurred between officers and the suspect; an officer was shot in the leg, while the suspect was said to have been shot in the head before being taken into custody.
All injured parties are still alive, according to Lanier.
