Suspect in bomb threat near US Capitol surrenders after police stand-off
- Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, drove onto the pavement outside the Library of Congress and told officers he had explosives in his pickup truck
- The incident brought the area around the Capitol to a virtual standstill for hours as buildings were evacuated
A man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck near the Capitol surrendered to law enforcement after an hours-long stand-off on Thursday that prompted a massive police response and the evacuations of government buildings and businesses in the area.
Police did not immediately know whether there were explosives in the vehicle, but authorities were searching the truck in an effort to understand what led the man, identified by law enforcement officials as 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry of North Carolina, to drive onto the pavement outside the Library of Congress and make bomb threats to officers.
The stand-off was resolved peacefully after roughly five hours of negotiations, ending when Roseberry crawled out of the truck and was taken into law enforcement custody. But the incident brought the area surrounding the Capitol to a virtual standstill as police emptied buildings and cordoned off streets as a precaution.
Congress is in recess this week, but staff were seen calmly walking out of the area at the direction of authorities.
The episode unfolded during a tense period in Washington, coming eight months after the insurrection at the US Capitol and one month before a planned rally in Washington that law enforcement officials have been preparing for.