The US Capitol Police confirmed that they had apprehended a man who claimed to be driving an explosive-laden truck following an hours-long standoff on the Capitol grounds near the Library of Congress.
The suspect was detained Thursday afternoon at about 2:15 p.m. during a standoff with Capitol Police and other federal law enforcement authorities. According to Fox News, the individual was using Facebook to publicize his bomb threats.
Facebook announced in a statement on Thursday that it promptly disabled the suspect's Facebook Live feed upon discovery.
“We are in contact with law enforcement,” a spokesperson told Politico. “Our teams are working to identify, remove, and block any other instances of the suspect’s videos which do not condemn, neutrally discuss the incident or provide neutral news coverage of the issue.”
Police have not decided whether the guy who allegedly possessed enough "ammonium nitrate" to level two city blocks possessed explosives or not. Investigators are investigating to determine whether the suspicious item in the pickup truck is a functioning explosive and whether the driver was holding a detonator.
“The suspect who authorities say claimed to have a bomb in his pickup truck Thursday morning surrendered to police and is in their custody hours after parking his vehicle in front of Washington, D.C.’s Library of Congress – prompting evacuations and lockdowns in the area,” the outlet reported.
According to Fox, shortly after police received a tip of a suspicious vehicle parked on Independence Avenue and First Street, "the suspect was taken into custody at approximately 2:15 p.m. local time – approximately five hours after police received the report of the vehicle." Federal officials also revealed to the media that they searched the suspect's North Carolina home for evidence.
Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger stated that the suspect had lately suffered "family losses" and that authorities were attempting to contact the suspect's relatives.
“The driver of the truck told the responding officer on the scene that he had a bomb. And what appeared, the officer said, appeared to be a detonator in the man’s hand,” Manger told media. “We immediately evacuated the nearby buildings.”
“As far as we can tell it was just his decision to surrender,” Manger added.
