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One Police Officer Injured After Capitol Hill Car Chase

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

Washington, D.C.'s Capitol Hill was the scene of a car chase today that ended not far from the halls of Congress. A Capitol police officer was injured and is being treated at an area hospital. Police say it was an isolated incident with no links to terrorism. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang was on the scene after the shooting and sent this report.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: White House officials say the incident began at the edge of the White House grounds and continued as a car chase through the heart of the nation's capital. U.S. Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine spoke at a press conference earlier this afternoon.

CHIEF KIM DINE: This appears to be an isolated incident with just one vehicle involved. There's been coordination between all the agencies that I just mentioned, including the FBI. So both scenes are under control.

WANG: Some buildings on Capitol Hill were locked down following the incident, and they began opening this afternoon. Lauren Bladen-White works about a couple blocks north of the Capitol building.

You actually heard gunshots.

LAUREN BLADEN-WHITE: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Oh, yeah.

WANG: How many?

BLADEN-WHITE: Oh...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Four or five, at least.

BLADEN-WHITE: Yeah, multiple. Multiple shots. And like I said, then there were...

WANG: Did they sound near, far?

BLADEN-WHITE: No. They were right here. Yeah. I mean, they sounded like they were right here, right at the corner here.

WANG: She says after she heard the shots, she helped alert her co-workers at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. They gathered in the building's basement and sheltered in place until Capitol Police lifted the order. Police say the suspect is female and have not released other details about the suspect. Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News, Washington.

CORNISH: And we'll have more on that incident near the U.S. Capitol as details become available. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) is a national correspondent for NPR reporting on the people, power and money behind the U.S. census.

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