Several major news outlets are currently reporting gunshots being heard in our nation's capitol, right at Capitol Hill. The Senate and the House have subsequently been put on lockdown. The gunshots come at a particularly tense time, as the federal government is in the middle of a shutdown, due to a deadlocked Congress.
3:18 PM: A Republican congressman from Arkansas, Tim Griffin, has already managed to blame the shooting on Democrats and President Obama. As the lockdown was in place, he Tweeted:
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After deleting the Tweet, he's already followed it up with an apology:
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Like we said: Business as usual.
3:14 PM: Local DC news outlets are reporting that a female suspect was shot and killed.
Politico reports:
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3:09 PM: The current news line goes that a female driver tried to ram her car into the White House gate. This comes via NBC News' Pete Williams:
3:04 PM: The Capitol is no longer on lockdown. It seems that the usual madness is beginning to already come back into play:
Several people have pointed out that—due to the government shutdown—those same Capitol Police (who are also being shot at) may not recieve a regularly scheduled paycheck the next time they are owed one.
2:43 PM: Bloomberg News is reporting that Congress is on official recess, and that FBI field agents are now on the scene. Capitol police will be holding a briefing at 3PM. As of right now, there is no official connection between the government shutdown and the shooting, though we can expect to hear that question asked—if not answered—at the upcoming press conference.
Twitter's been buzzing with political reporters and politicians themselves noting and photographing the chaos on Capitol Hill at the moment:
We will continue to update this post as official reports come through.
