Bomb threat suspect surrenders near US Capitol after police report ‘suspicious vehicle’
A potential bomb threat Thursday involving a suspicious pickup truck parked near the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., that prompted Capitol Hill evacuations has been resolved peacefully, police say.
The bombing suspect left the black pickup truck, where he had been livestreaming threats to detonate a bomb, and surrendered to police about 2:30 p.m. ET, about five hours after the ordeal began, NBC News reported on Twitter.
Police said at a press briefing Thursday afternoon that they initially communicated with the man via white boards. They tried to talk to him on a phone brought to his truck by a robot, but the man refused and surrendered a short time later.
Police identified the man as 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry of Grover, North Carolina. Police have not announced any charges against the man as of 3 p.m. ET.
Officials are still searching the pickup truck to render it safe and will be assessing the scene for hours, Capitol Police said Thursday afternoon.
Police did not give a motive but said relatives of Roseberry told them he had “issues he was dealing with.” He has been taken into custody.
Capitol Police said in a news briefing that around 9:15 a.m. ET a man in a black pickup truck drove onto the sidewalk near the Library of Congress. He told officers he had a bomb and appeared to have a detonator in his hand, according to police.
“We don’t know a whole lot,” Chief J. Thomas Manger said. “We don’t have much information at all.”
A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the platform has removed a page with several livestream videos from Roseberry saying he was inside a truck outside the Library of Congress with explosive materials.
U.S. Capitol Police on Twitter had earlier warned people to avoid the area because of an “active bomb threat investigation.”
Office buildings for the Library of Congress and U.S. House of Representatives were evacuated, CNBC reported. The Senate and House are not in session.
The Supreme Court, which is in recess, was also evacuated, ABC News reported.
Several nearby streets in Washington D.C. also were closed, NPR reported. Subway trains were bypassing the nearby Capitol South metro station.
Police later in the day began evacuating residential neighborhoods near Capitol Hill, WTOP reported.
Police deployed snipers to the scene, the Associated Press reported. The White House is monitoring the situation.
A communications manager for U.S. Rep. Don Beyer shared photos on Twitter of messages Capitol staffers received about the evacuations.
Thursday’s events mark the first time U.S. Capitol buildings have been evacuated since Jan. 6, when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an insurrection.
U.S. Reps. Ted Lieu and Val Demings were among the elected officials who said they and their staffs were safe and monitoring the situation.
Opened in 1897, the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world and the main research facility for the U.S. Congress. It is located about 400 feet away from the U.S. Capitol building.
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 11:04 AM with the headline "Bomb threat suspect surrenders near US Capitol after police report ‘suspicious vehicle’."