WASHINGTON — A security guard was mortally injured in a shooting at the U.S. Census Bureau’s headquarters in Suitland, Md., on Thursday evening in an incident that authorities said began with an abduction in Washington and ended with the suspect shot on H Street N.E. after a dramatic chase and shootout.
The guard, identified as Lawrence Buckner, died at a hospital in Cheverly, Md., at 7:19 p.m. Thursday, said Prince George’s Hospital Center spokeswoman Erika Murray.
The chaotic events spanned at least two hours and more than 15 miles, police said, beginning with an apparent domestic abduction in northeast Washington.
The situation erupted at the Census Bureau campus, where employees reported hearing gunshots and were blocked in by dozens of law enforcement vehicles, and came to a wild finish in Washington’s busy H Street corridor, where at least 15 police cars appeared among the bars and restaurants and closed down traffic to confront the suspect.
“One moment, we are eating tandoori chicken and the next we are on the floor,” said Roberta Shapiro, who was dining with her husband and friends at Cusbah near 12th and H streets N.E. “All of a sudden there were blue lights everywhere. It was like police cars were dropping out of the sky, there so many.”
The incident began at about 5:30 p.m. at Third and T streets N.E., where District of Columbia Police Chief Cathy Lanier said a man forced a woman into a green Honda. Police believe the two know each other, and one law enforcement official said they are married.
Shortly after that, the couple were seen arguing in the car outside a gate at the Census Bureau campus on Silver Hill Road in Prince George’s County, Md., Lanier said. A guard approached the car and was shot several times, she said.
Next, Lanier said, the suspect shot at a D.C. police cruiser on Bruce Place S.E. Police gave chase, and at Third and K streets N.W., the suspect fired again, she said. When he approached the H Street commercial corridor, police rammed his car. The suspect got out and opened fire, and officers fired back to bring the incident to a close, the chief said.
Lanier said late Thursday that the last she had heard, the suspect was alive. She said the woman, who was able to get out of the car somewhere between the Census Bureau’s campus and H Street, was located and “in good condition.”
Lanier also said a D.C. police sergeant was hit in the leg, but she did not describe his condition.
She said the suspect was conscious when he was carried from the scene. Several other law enforcement officials said he was shot in the head.
FBI spokeswoman Amy Thoreson said shortly before 9 p.m. that the H Street incident “ended” the Suitland situation, and a loudspeaker at the Census Bureau headquarters announced the all-clear.
Thoreson said the incident was not linked to terrorism. Two government sources said police told them that the shooting was probably domestic in nature.
It was unclear how many workers were still at the complex at the end of the business day.
Donna Millhouse, an administrative assistant, said she was just getting off of work at 6:30 p.m. when she heard that her building was on lockdown. She and her co-workers hunkered down, keeping abreast of the situation on social media and loudspeaker announcements.
“Everybody was calm or trying to keep everybody else calm,” she said.
Nelson Ukaegbu, also a guard at the complex, saw the aftermath of the shooting on video from the command center where he was stationed. He saw another guard administering CPR to the injured man as employees in the command center rushed to call local and federal law enforcement.
He was upset by the injury to his colleague. “I’m feeling so sad. It is just so sad,” he said.
Shapiro, the eyewitness at the H Street restaurant, said she was close to the front windows and saw the police car crash into the vehicle, then heard gunfire.
