Man Surrenders After Claiming To Have Bomb Near Capitol

WASHINGTON (AP) — The antheral who claimed to person weaponry successful a pickup motortruck adjacent the U.S. Capitol has surrendered to instrumentality enforcement, ending an hourslong standoff connected Thursday.

The man, identified by instrumentality enforcement officials arsenic Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, of North Carolina, crawled retired of the conveyance and was being taken into custody soon earlier 2:30 p.m.

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He had pulled up extracurricular the room earlier successful the time and told constabulary helium had a weaponry successful his truck. An serviceman saw what appeared to beryllium a detonator successful the man’s hand.

The antheral had been negotiating with constabulary during a standoff that lasted astir 5 hours.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier communicative follows below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A antheral sitting successful a achromatic pickup motortruck parked connected the sidewalk extracurricular the Library of Congress told constabulary helium had a weaponry Thursday, triggering a standoff successful the bosom of the nation’s capital.

Officials evacuated a fig of buildings astir the Capitol and sent snipers to the country aft officers saw a antheral holding what looked similar a detonator wrong the pickup, which had nary licence plates. The antheral was identified arsenic Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, of Grover, North Carolina, according to 2 radical briefed connected the matter. Congress is successful recess this week, but staffers were seen calmly walking retired of the country astatine the absorption of authorities.

Police negotiators were communicating with Roseberry arsenic helium wrote notes and showed them to authorities from wrong the truck, according to the 2 radical and a 3rd idiosyncratic besides briefed connected the matter, each of whom spoke connected information of anonymity due to the fact that they were not authorized to publically sermon the matter.

Authorities were trying to find whether it was an operable bomb, the officials said. Police gave nary contiguous details connected his motive oregon immoderate demands.

“My negotiators are hard astatine enactment trying to person a peaceful solution to this incident,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said. “We’re trying to get arsenic overmuch accusation arsenic we tin to find a mode to peacefully resoluteness this.”

While constabulary continued negotiations, video surfaced of Roseberry connected Facebook Live wrong the truck, which was stuffed with coins and boxes. He was threatening explosions, making anti-government threats and talking astir what helium believes are the ills of the country, including the U.S. presumption connected Afghanistan, wellness attraction and the military.

He said Democrats needed to measurement down, past besides said helium loved the president, Democrat Joe Biden. Facebook removed the videos a fewer hours aft they were seemingly filmed. Roseberry did not look to person a circumstantial request for instrumentality enforcement different than to talk with Biden.

Roseberry’s ex-wife, Crystal Roseberry, said she had seen images of the antheral successful the standoff astatine the Capitol and confirmed to The Associated Press that it was her ex-husband. She said had ne'er known him to person explosives, but that helium was an avid collector of firearms.

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The nation’s superior has been tense since the Jan. 6 insurrection astatine the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Fencing that had been installed astir the Capitol grounds had been up for months but was taken down this summer. A time earlier thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, tube bombs were near astatine the office of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee successful Washington. No 1 has been arrested yet for placing the bombs.

The RNC, not acold distant from wherever the motortruck was parked Thursday, was besides evacuated implicit the threat. Officials are besides jittery implicit a planned rally successful September successful D.C.

The occurrence began astir 9:15 a.m. erstwhile the motortruck drove up the sidewalk extracurricular the library, constabulary said. The operator told the responding serviceman that helium had a bomb, and was holding what the serviceman believed to beryllium a detonator. The motortruck had nary licence plates.

Hours into the standoff, the country remained blocked disconnected by constabulary cars and barricades, and aggregate occurrence trucks and ambulances were staged nearby. Also responding were the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police, FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The White House said it was monitoring the concern and was being briefed by instrumentality enforcement.

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Long reported from New Buffalo, Michigan. Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer successful Boston, Tom Foreman Jr. successful Charlotte, North Carolina, and Zeke Miller, Nathan Ellgren, Ashraf Khalil, Alex Brandon and Michael Biesecker successful Washington contributed to this report.

MEDIA ALERT: This is an progressive weaponry menace investigation. The staging country for journalists covering this concern is astatine Constitution and First Street, NW for your safety.

Please proceed to debar the country astir the Library of Congress. pic.twitter.com/jTNVaBmVwR

— U.S. Capitol Police (@CapitolPolice) August 19, 2021