Shots Fired At US Capitol

skade88 writes with a report that "The United States Capitol has been put on lockdown after shots were fired. Reports indicate a policeman was injured." From the story: "The FBI was responding to the unconfirmed reports of shots, and a helicopter landed in front of the Capitol. A message from the Capitol Police ordered anyone in a House office to 'shelter in place.' 'Close, lock and stay away from external doors and windows,' the message said." Doubtless more to come on this; watch this space for updates. Update: 10/03 19:08 GMT by T : ABC News reports that the shots followed an attempt to ram the White House gates; the police subsequently shot and killed the driver. Other than that the driver was a woman, the reports adds little detail. Update: 10/03 19:19 GMT by T : Reuters' U.S. Politics Live feed is currently collating many reports from the scene. Of note: the lockdown itself was brief, and has been lifted.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, cmon. Is this reddit? Are we supposed to get the CCTV records and look through to try and identify the shooter?

Sure this is front page news... But why on slashdot?

Stuff that matters.

Re:Isn't it empty?

[CrimsonAvenger]

1) It's a woman.

2) This started with her ramming her car into the White House gate. Then there was the car chase down in the general direction of the Capitol Building.

3) Shots were fired. Doesn't say whether she shot first or the police did. Given the ramming the gate of the White House and the car chase, could have gone either way.

4) She was shot, one police officer was "injured". Not sure whether that means he was shot or not.

Re:It's about time.

[Xabraxas]

CIA employees have been furloughed. 70% of CIA analysts have been furloughed. [thehill.com]

Re:Fox removed all their comments

[DogDude]

FoxNews.com pulled all of their comments about a year ago. That's where *all* of the crazies congregated. Their comment sections were literally nothing but people saying horrible, violent racist things about the president and other people that were not approved by the Right Wing Brain. I used to read them out of sheer amazement at the things that people said. I've never really seen anything like it, except at Glenn Beck's site (TheBlaze.com).

Re:Isn't it empty?

[bobcat7677]

1. Yes, Preliminary reports are that the suspect is a woman who had a child in the car. 2. "ramming" may have been an embellishment. I heard it described more like she "tried to go through the gate" but security stopped her. 3. There is no confirmation if the "suspect" even had any weapons. From the preliminary reports, it sounds like the shots fired were actually fired by the police to stop the car from getting away. 4. It was just clarified by the capitol police chief that the injured officer was NOT shot but rather struck by a vehicle.

Re:So the guards are still getting paid? :)

[Eunuchswear]

Maybe I'm wrong, but usa.gov says:

Hundreds of thousands of Federal employees including many charged with protecting us from terrorist threats, defending our borders, inspecting our food, and keeping our skies safe will work without pay until the shutdown ends.

Ok, that seems not to include the armed forces, but it does say people are working without pay.

Re:Zombies.

[phantomfive]

They've declared themselves essential and thus continue to get paid.

Also, they refuse to go with health insurance provided by ACA (obamacare), it isn't good enough to satisfy them. Really.

Also, they get automatic raises every year, but I think most people are aware of that.

Re:Zombies.

[Curunir_wolf]

Also, they get automatic raises every year, but I think most people are aware of that.

Well that's necessary because of the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which states:

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

Of course, the slimy lawyers in Congress saw the loophole in this populist amendment right away: just pass a law making raises automatic, and once it's in effect they get raises forever.

Re:That is what you get...

[CrimsonAvenger]

...for enshrining the "right" to bear arms in your constitution. "Gun control? Fuck no, we have the right to wear guns and shoot things, goddammit! Zomglol bless Murrica!"

It's looking more and more like all the shots fired were by the Police...

Re:tragedy of errors?

[arth1]

Perhaps she should have tried the white house instead.

Perhaps you should have tried following the news before mouthing off. She did crash into the gate to the White House, and cops went after her, chased her to the Capitol building where the car was stopped, and the cops shot her repeatedly.

Re:Zombies.

[PopeRatzo]

Employees can not use employer insurance subsidies to purchase Obamacare, only insurance through their employer. The exemption in question specifically permits members of congress to do just that: use their employer's (that is us, via our tax dollars), insurance subsidy to purchase Obamacare.

Do you know that this issue, the requirement that congress people and staffers have to seek insurance on their own through the public exchanges, was put into the bill by the Republican Senator Grassley, who meant it as a "poison pill". To his chagrin, the House let it stand and now they're blaming the President.

It is just a right-wing meme that there is some "exemption" for congress. They get insurance the same way we do, except they are subsidized, just as they were before Obamacare was passed.

Re:Zombies.

[plurgid]

you guys have got to be kidding or you've got to be really disconnected from reality.
almost *every single* member of congress is already *at least* a millionaire. No shit:

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/01/new-congress-new-and-more-wealth.html [opensecrets.org]

and it's not like this is even a new thing. It's been this way a LOOONG time.
So if you honestly think that the salary these d-bags are pulling is anything more than tip money for the golf caddy to these guys you're living in a fantasy land.