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Gunfire near Capitol Hill Situation Appears Contained; Police: Man Tried to Run over Capitol Officers; Police: Capitol Incident Appears Criminal, not Terror. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 29, 2017 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[10:00:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: -- have you? And what else are you hearing potentially from witnesses?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): We're a couple of blocks away from the scene and we're almost there, but what we're hearing from the Metropolitan Police and again, we're trying to reach the Capitol Police to get their version of what has occurred here. This did occur near the Capitol Building according to Metropolitan Police just about a block or two away, it's also right here at the Botanical Gardens which is at the west end of Capitol Hill -- at the foot of Capitol Hill.

Police got a call, according to Metro Police, at about 9:30 a.m. that a car had struck a police cruiser and continued to attempt to run over Capitol Police officers and according to Metropolitan Police, there were warning shots fired at the driver and he was apprehended. No reports of injury. I heard Tom talking about warning shots. We'll try to get some clarification from the Capitol Hill police when we are on the scene in a couple of minutes here to see the nature of those shots fired. But there are no reports of injuries.

Apparently, the driver is now in custody. We're led to believe that this incident is concluded. But again, you know, we're getting on the scene right now and trying to get some information.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And for people, Brian, who haven't had the pleasure of visiting the Capitol, right? I mean, Capitol Hill, you know, it's a big area. The U.S. Capitol Building is there. You see in the inauguration, there are lawns in front and in back of it. And then there are these streets that pass by, Independence Avenue passes by one side, Constitution on the other. And you know, it's a very big area and the Capitol Police are all around it, correct?

All right, Brian Todd, we appear to have a -

HARLOW: Brian, are you still with us?

TODD: I'm here, guys, if you can hear me.

BERMAN: Yes. So, just trying again in a sense, describe to our audience so they know the type of security normally seen up there on Capitol Hill in the area. TODD: It's very, very heavy security. There are Capitol Hill police officers constantly patrolling and manning checkpoints both at base of Capitol Hill and on other sides of Capitol Hill on the east and west sides. There is a constant flow of tourists and busses and just foot traffic in this area. But there are -- it is a very, very heavy security presence here. And there are barricades all over Capitol Hill. So, it really is - it's not easy to move around here under normal circumstances and we actually find ourselves blocked by some barricades and some other traffic up.

And we're getting to the scene now. We're pretty close. But anyway, I'm just seeing right now, they put up a barricade at the west end of the Capitol, at the foot of Capitol Hill, not far from the Botanical Gardens and I'm seeing the police cruisers on the other side of the block. I'm going to get out and walk over there, see if I can get some information.

It is a fairly calm scene, people on the street. There are people walking from the Capitol, but no appearance of any kind of panic or anything like that right now, guys.

HARLOW: And Tom Fuentes, if you're still with us, again, what the Capitol Police, the alert they sent out is that there has been activity at Washington and Independence. They have said that all staff should steer clear of the area until further notice. What would the initial sort of bigger -

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): Hello?

HARLOW: Tom Fuentes, if you're there. It's Poppy.

FUENTES: -- Poppy?

HARLOW: We do. Hey, Tom, you're on the air right now. So, I'm just asking about the big picture response, the Capitol Police and the House Sergeant at Arms are aware, they are monitoring and there are messages to the staff should stay clear of the area until further notice, even though we do have reports that this man has been apprehended. What would the larger response be now if they have apprehended the individual, then what is next in terms of how the authorities respond?

FUENTES: Well, the response now, Poppy, is that they want to keep everybody that works at the Capitol and nearby Capitol Hill buildings to be safe. So they'd want them to stay in until they verify that the individual acted alone, that there weren't other accomplices with him or copycats that may show up and try to do any kind of an attack on workers at the Capitol complex.

So, that's their main concern is just to keep the individuals who work on Capitol Hill safe for now while the police get to the bottom of this, if they can. And if it turns out that there's just one lone individual, he's in custody, there's going to be no further threat to anybody else, then they'll go back to business -- normal operations. But the greater response is that you have, you know, a tremendous amount of law enforcement in the U.S. Capitol Hill area. The Capitol Hill police themselves, the Washington Metropolitan Police and then you have federal agencies. And in this case, because Washington is a federal district, an assault on a police officer whether it's Capitol Hill or Metropolitan Police is also a federal crime.

So, if one of the police officers had been seriously injured or killed then the FBI would take charge of that investigation into that officer's killing. So there is a great deal of response that could be brought to bear. It's a question now of the initial investigation and whether it shows that that's warranted.

[10:05:05] BERMAN: So, Tom, -- let me put this in a bigger context. We know that someone is in custody right now. We don't know who it is. We don't know why they did this. We don't know if it was some accident or not.

But in the broader context, we know that just a few days ago in London, someone tried to run you know, did - you know, run over pedestrians on the street near Parliament. We know that vehicles are now being used in attacks. Talk to us about the concern over this type of incident, when people are driving into crowds using cars as weapons.

FUENTES: Well, the problem is that this technique has been used by terrorists or wannabe terrorists now for probably 10 or 15 years to use a vehicle itself as a weapon and run over people and we've seen this in so many different attacks, the Nice truck driver. --

HARLOW: Yes, Ohio State.

FUENTES: Right, Ohio State. So, we've had those happen on a regular basis. But the problem is, at this point, we know too little about this, whether -- it's a terror attack or whether it's just, you know a mentally unstable person who decided to take an attack on the police. So, we just don't know that yet. Obviously, it's a concern and that's what they are going to be looking at to see if this person is a lone attacker. And if so, what was the possible motivation for the attack?

HARLOW: So, what other security measures are they doing then right now in terms of you know, Brian Todd just told us our reporter on the scene, that their vehicle had been blocked, you know, a matter of blocks away from barricades already. What kind of protective barricades would they be putting up around the area which John rightly described is very, very large. You're not just talking about protecting the Capitol Building.

FUENTES: Well, it's a crime scene. So, you know, they're going to be trying to seal off other vehicles from coming into it and you know, running over the evidence that may be found there. They're going to want to recover all of the shell casings and determine whether or not they came from just the police or just this individual or possibly someone else's gun that they haven't identified.

So, they'll want to know whether there is a possibility that another person that they don't know about fired shots and ran away. So, it's still a crime scene. It's going to take several hours to cover that entire street and look for any possible piece of evidence that might be lying on the pavement.

BERMAN: All right, Tom, stand by. I want to bring in our Capitol Hill reporter Manu Raju who I believe is inside the Capitol right now. Manu, give us a sense. Did you hear the gun shots? Are you seeing any increased security where you are? What are you seeing and hearing?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: You know, in the building right now, John, no. They actually -- it's pretty calm. It's carrying forward as a normal day on Capitol Hill. Some --there's a lot of chatter in the hallways about these reports and about what people are seeing on TV and on Twitter but not in the increased security within the Capitol that we can determine at the moment.

We do know that Capitol Police, however, is responding to these reports. They said that they are moving and investigating exactly what happened. But they are taking this incredibly seriously because this happened, just steps away from the House where the House currently is in session. This is a peak tourist season, too. So, a lot of folks coming in and out of the Capitol, in addition to, of course, any time members of Congress are in town there's always heightened security and when an incident like this happens certainly even more so. So, that is mostly happening outside the building right now.

Inside the building, the members are still moving on. There's not a security situation. They're not asking folks to shelter in place. None of that is happening at the moment as the -- Capitol Police moves to secure the area outside the building and of course, taking this very seriously given how close this is to all the actions that's happening on Capitol Hill today, guys.

BERMAN: And Manu, I just want you to reiterate that point because I'm sure you have been in the Capitol covering things when it has gone into lockdown or mere lockdown. It is something that happens from time to time. So, if it is not happening now, it does indicate that there is not some greater concern for the spreading, at least indoors. Would that be your take, Manu?

RAJU: Yes, that's right. And remember, last year when the gunshot actually occurred in the Capitol Visitor Center complex around the security area, at that point there was a lockdown. Folks were told to shelter in place. People were not allowed to leave their offices. That's not happening right now.

There is no threat within the building, within the complex. This is appears to perhaps be an isolated incident that the police -- are now getting their handles on outside, but not inside the building. So, certainly, as you can see behind me, folks are coming in and out, tourists coming in and out, members of Congress moving about their day, no threat in the building at the moment, guys.

[10:10:05] HARLOW: It's interesting you said tourists are still coming in and out as far as you can tell, Manu?

RAJU: Yes, they are.

HARLOW: OK.

RAJU: And this is the time of the year where you're seeing hordes of tourists coming in for their spring break tours in particular and people coming -- up in here all day long in these hallways and we're not too far from where the location, where that incident actually occurred. So clearly, the police -- there's no concern within the police in letting folks in to the building. It seems perfectly safe right now indoors.

HARLOW: And Manu, we are getting a live look at images right outside of the Capitol right now. These are live pictures coming in to us. You do see a number of police cruisers there.

BERMAN: You see the Botanical Gardens right there -

HARLOW: Right.

BERMAN: -- for people who know the area.

HARLOW: But as Manu has reported there are tourists still coming inside and out, lawmakers are going about their day, no shelter in place warning inside of the Capitol. We do have Art Roderick with us, our CNN law enforcement analyst and former assistant director of the U.S. Marshals' office. You know, Manu -- brought up a good point and that is that they already have heightened security at and around the Capitol -- when Congress is in session. What would they have there on a normal day -- in terms of increased security?

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST AND FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR U.S. MARSHAL OFFICE (via telephone): Well, generally, what you see if you're familiar with that area is that you've got Capitol Police officers actually standing on the street. And as you can see from the pictures you're showing, there's also metal barricades that can easily be activated at any given point and time to secure that whole area.

So they got a really good way of securing the whole area around the Capitol. But you also have assistance for the Capitol. You have Capitol Police, this is Capitol Police's jurisdiction, but you also have park police, you've got Metropolitan PD, and I'm sure the FBI and probably - ATF are responding due to the fact that this was shots fired.

Also, I worked for Homeland Security for about six years and that's the agency on the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center which actually trained the Capitol Police. And the initial report of warning shots being fired is not part of any law enforcement training anymore. In fact, that type of warning shot issue went out in the mid-90s. So, I think more than likely they were engaging this individual directly as opposed to firing warning shots.

BERMAN: I think that's an important point to make and the words warning shots was something used by the Metropolitan Police to describe what the Capitol Police did. We have no idea if they were warning shots, if there are shots from Capitol Police to try to apprehend the man who they say was trying to drive into Capitol Police.

And let me reset here for a second for people just joining us. This is what happened. A man driving on Independence Avenue, that's right next to Capitol Hill. Capitol Police say, tried to run into a Capitol Police cruiser and then tried repeatedly to run over Capitol Police officers this morning.

Now, this man is now in custody. He was apprehended just a few blocks away. There were reports of shots fired. And as you can see, you are looking at live pictures of the scene right now. It is a secure area. No one was injured.

As of now that we can tell in this incident and we did just hear moments ago from our Manu Raju inside the Capitol. As far as he can tell, there's no security inside the Capitol, no additional security measures taking place there. So, for at least some people up in that area, it's business as usual even though you see this heightened security right outside.

HARLOW: So the outstanding questions we have right now. Who was apprehended? Was this individual alone? That is what reports just have - from Metropolitan Police of one individual apprehended. Do we know if there was anyone else? Why did this driver ram into the police cruiser? Was this a deranged individual? Was this something, you know, more planned out? Those are still outstanding questions.

But Manu Raju very importantly reporting from inside the Capitol, where we saw people and members of Congress and aides walking back and forth going about their day, they have not been put in a shelter in place warning, nothing out of the ordinary - inside the building.

BERMAN: And remember what happened in the British Parliament, you know, when there was a vehicle attack on the Westminster Bridge. They were in lockdown including -

HARLOW: Exactly.

BERMAN: -- members of parliament for hours there. That is not happening here. Art Roderick, if you're still with us, though. I mean, the headline here is that someone tried to run over Capitol Hill police officers in a vehicle. Obviously, there is so much concern right now about just that type of incident, vehicles being used as weapons. How hard is it to protect against that?

RODERICK: It's very difficult especially if the individual is willing to die for whatever cause, they're fighting for. In this particular case we don't know the motivation yet. Was this just a simple, you know, police stop that occurred here and the individual decided to ram the vehicle?

But you know, you do anything around that Capitol area and obviously, you not only have an incident that occurred here but heightened tension with law enforcement. [10:15:03] And law enforcement will respond very quickly to this particular area also. So, I think the key here is what is the motivation behind this particular incident and you know, that is going to be the key to figure out exactly if they were by themselves or you know, if it was just a lone incident that occurred out there?

HARLOW: All right, Brian Todd, our correspondent is on the ground now. Brian, you guys have made it past. It sounds like the barricades that blocked you on your way over there. You are now on the scene. What are you seeing and what are you hearing?

TODD: Well, we see a dark gray sedan on the street that we believe may be the vehicle in question here. We're showing streaming live video - shot by my producer Dugald McConnell. We are about I'd say 40 yards away from the vehicle. It's surrounded by a minimum of six or seven police vehicles right now.

It's a fairly calm scene. We are told that the driver of the vehicle is in custody and that there were shots fired. Now, the nature of those shots, we're still trying to get information. Capitol Hill Public Information people are on their way here to brief us, we are told. But they're not here yet.

What we do know is from the Metropolitan Washington Police is that the call came in at about 9:30 a.m. but the vehicle, possibly the one you're seeing here. We believe that's it because that's the only vehicle surrounded by police cars here at the corner of Independence Avenue and 1st Street just at the base of Capitol Hill.

The police do say that this car struck a police cruiser and attempted to hit police officers and there were shots fired and that the driver is in custody. There was no one injured according to Metropolitan Washington police and there are various jurisdictions on the scene right now. I see a Capitol Hill police cruiser there. You see Metropolitan Washington police cruisers around, several officers from different jurisdictions around the scene.

And otherwise it's fairly calm around here. They do have Independence Avenue cordoned off here on the southwest corner of the Capitol. And we are right next to the Rayburn Building. We did hear and see some tweets earlier that the Rayburn Building might be on lockdown. It would make sense if it is. I don't have confirmation that it's completely on lockdown. But if it is, it would certainly make sense because this incident is just a few feet from the Rayburn Building and it is right next to the Botanical Gardens which is a very popular tourist attraction here at the foot of Capitol Hill.

BERMAN: So, just to be clear. We've been saying that a man has been apprehended, that the driver was a man that's because that's what our initial report said. I think at this point, we are not 100 percent sure on the gender. We will get that to you when we get confirmation from Capitol Police.

Bryan, you know, you covered a lot of incidents in Washington and unfortunately, there are a lot of security incidents, you know, all around the country. Describe the level of security compared to other things that you see right now. Does there appear to be a level of concern among the officers that are right in front of you?

TODD: You know they're being very protective of the scene. I don't sense a heightened level of concern. They are steering people away from -- pedestrian traffic away from the scene and they're getting a little impatient with some of the journalists who are just trying to get a better angle on this.

But you know, this is a city and these are police officers of these different jurisdictions that are very used to this kind of thing and know how to handle these security alerts very well. They're just going about their business. They're processing the vehicle right now and gathering some evidence that we see and they're just - you know, they're handling this. But they're trying to now figure out kind of how to reroute some of the vehicle traffic and the pedestrian traffic which is getting a little heavier at this point.

HARLOW: And Bryan, I know that we have been waiting to hear back from Capitol Police. Our reporting is coming from the Metropolitan Police. But again, just to reset the scene after this individual driving this car rammed into a Capitol Police cruiser, there are reports that the Capitol Police fired warning shots and then apprehended him. Have we heard from the Capitol Police directly yet about that?

TODD: No, we have not heard from the Capitol Police yet. We are waiting to hear from them and they are going to be the ones who will probably give us more detailed information. We hope that that will come in just a couple of minutes here.

We've been circling around this area, trying to find the Capitol Hill Police Public Information person who can give us some more information on this incident. They are apparently being briefed right now, some of the details that they can give us. But you know, what is clear here is that there is a heightened security level around this area that the police officers here are getting a little bit more impatient with some of us and some of the other pedestrians who are here trying to get a better look at what happened here. So, we hope to get some more information in a couple of minutes.

What we do know is that there were shots fired. The nature of those shots we're not clear on. The Metropolitan Police initially said, there were warning shots, but it is not clear from our view here whether those shots actually disabled this vehicle or not. We can't get any clearer read on whether there are any, you know, bullet holes or anything in this vehicle. We don't see any, but we're -- hopefully going to get that information pretty soon.

[10:20:05] BERMAN: All right, Brian Todd, stand by for us on the scene. Just to remind people of what's happening right now. Capitol Police say that a driver tried to ram into a Capitol Police cruiser and then tried to apparently run down some Capitol Police officers. This man or this person, this driver has now been apprehended. There were shots fired at one point. No injuries reported.

Now, there are some people who have used the phrase warning shots. Our Tom Fuentes points out the police don't use warning shot. You shoot to disarm, disable or to kill a suspect. They don't like that term, but that is exactly what we are being told by Metropolitan Police. That is why it's being used in this discussion, not because we know that it was the case. That it actually happened.

We are joined by Cedric Alexander, CNN law enforcement analyst right now. And Frederick, there are a lot of competing jurisdictions here on Capitol Hill. You're talking about one of the most secure cities in the world, right? You have Capitol Police, you know, guarding the grounds. You have Metropolitan Police guarding the city. And then you have whatever concerns there might be about some kind of larger action that might not just be a crime, Cedric.

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): Well, any time you have an event -- such as this in a small Metropolitan community such as what you have there at D.C. What you're going to find is that all these agencies are going to converge up on the threat and that was clearly the case here. It is very early in this investigation and I think it's still yet to be determined as to how this whole thing transpired. The good part about it is that at this point, no one has been injured or killed. But I think a lot of questions going to come about as to what occurred and what initiated this attack upon these officers.

Also, let me mention the fact what Tom Fuentes mentioned. Police officers are not trained to fire warning shots. So whatever shots they had fired at that vehicle, it was clearly from what we can tell right there may have been very much a threat to those officers or to some other citizens in and around that community and they need to respond accordingly.

HARLOW: And that threat, Cedric, would be beyond just the car ramming into the police cruiser, right? They would have to know this was not an accident. This was an imminent threat to fire those shots.

ALEXANDER: Well, you know, my sense is their training will tell them, Capitol Police are some of the best trained in the country, and you have some fine police officers there with the Metropolitan Police Department, a fine agency. And what you are going to find, if they fired upon that vehicle, chances are they felt some real threat and they needed to do what they needed to do in order to stop that threat. And of course here, again, we are all very fortunate that no one was hurt, injured or killed.

BERMAN: All right, Cedric Alexander, stand by for us. We are joined now by our Capitol Hill reporter Phil Mattingly also, I believe, inside the Capitol. Phil, tell us exactly where you are right now. What you are seeing. You're inside -- you look like you're inside the Rotunda, perhaps, right now. Is it something that what's going on outside, is it something that people inside are aware of? What are you hearing?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not at all. And I think that's the really interesting element here. If you look behind me, there are tour groups, some standing in Statuary Hall right now, inside the Capitol Building. The Capitol Building is open. The House building that had been closed, Rayburn Building is now open as well. So things, at least on Capitol Hill, are starting to move back to business as usual. The Senate floor is currently in operation. Senator Schumer and Senator McConnell just finished their opening remarks for the day. And I think an interesting element here is - couple of things guys.

And I think, John, you know this very well. Sometimes this happens and obviously, we don't know the extent of what actually happened today. But the Capitol Police, the D.C. Metro Police know how to operate in these types of scenarios. We've had situations like this multiple times in my years of covering Capitol Hill. They move quickly and traditionally, they are very, very effective.

I will say one thing. As I was walking over the live shot, I ran into a Capitol Police officer and just asked kind of, what the deal was and he just nodded at me and said everything is under control right now. He did say one thing. He said, we are not trained to fire warning shots.

So the idea right now that there were warning shots are fired. I know a couple of people talked about this over the course of the last 20 or 30 minutes or so. That's not how they operate. I don't know any more of the back story there.

But Capitol Police and D.C. Metro Police, that's not in kind of their realm of doing things right now. So if shots were fired as we've been reporting and as reports say right now, it wasn't in a warning shot capacity. But I will say, as far as the Capitol is concerned, as far as even the House and Senate office buildings outside the Capitol. Right now, things appear to be moving back to business. Tourists are moving through here and right now at least according to the Capitol Police officer I spoke to on my way here, everything is under control guys.

HARLOW: It's an important point. Look, just to clarify for viewers, if you are just joining us, these were reports from the Metropolitan Police spokesperson to CNN, saying after this car rammed into a Capitol Police cruiser that the Capitol Police fired warning shots.

[10:25:04] That is not the case according to the Capitol Police officer, just telling you, Phil Mattingly, that we do not fire warning shots. That is not what we're trained to do. Manu, in a different part of the Capitol, was telling us that he was seeing tourists. This the height of tourist season coming in and now, everything is normal from the looks of it behind you. So, Phil Mattingly, same deal, tourists still coming in and going out?

MATTINGLY: Yes, that's exactly right. As you know, Poppy, this is the height of tourist season. This is a lot school groups. A lot of History classes from around the country are coming through and if you asked them and I asked a couple of them as I was walking over here, do you know what's going on outside the Capitol? Nobody is even aware.

So really, business is starting to move. As usual here in the Capitol, again, I think it's worth underscoring that we've had situations like this many times. This building, this whole area is the security is very tight here. They're very cognizant of what their job is every day and they've been dealt with situations like this before, car ramming's, things of that nature, threats and things of that nature and the idea that they often try to get across to us.

And that we've seen repeated, over and over again, is when situations like this confront the Capitol Police, confront the D.C. Metro police, in this area, on this grounds, they work quickly and they work very effectively. At least at the moment, appears to be the case here. We certainly aren't seeing any fallout from what occurred just a couple hundred yards away from the Capitol Building, inside the Capitol right now, guys.

BERMAN: Phil Mattingly and both Manu made the point that when there is something serious. They do see more fallout inside the building.

HARLOW: And a lockdown.

BERMAN: And a lockdown and the like, seeing that now. Are we getting a briefing now from Capitol Police? Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVA MALECKI, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR U.S. CAPITOL POLICE: I'm Eva Malecki. I'm the communications director for the United States Capitol Police. This morning at 9:00 a.m., United States Capitol Police officers observed an erratic and aggressive driver in the vicinity of 100 Independence Avenue Southwest. While attempting to stop the vehicle on Independence Avenue, the driver negotiated a U-turn and fled the scene nearly striking officers and struck at least one other vehicle. A brief pursuit followed until the vehicle was stopped at Washington and Independence Avenues Southwest. During the attempt to arrest the suspect, shots were fired. However, no individuals were injured during the arrest.

The investigation of this matter is being conducted by the United States Capitol Police Criminal Investigations and Office of Professional Responsibility. The investigation is in the preliminary stages and more details will be released as warranted. Although preliminary, this incident appears to be criminal in nature with no nexus to terrorism and in addition, the Capitol Complex remains open to the public except for traffic cuts here on Independence Avenue.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Any sense of motive? Did the person or the suspect suggest they were trying to get into the Capitol?

MALECKI: Again, there's no nexus for terrorism. It was a traffic stop.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you know what the instructions to this driver were? -- How many shots were fired and where did those shots land?

MALECKI: We're not going to get into that right now.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Were shots fired to disable the vehicle?

MALECKI: We're not going to get into those details. So thank you. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Was it a man or woman?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right there you have an update. We've now -

BERMAN: We just heard it was a woman. That was interesting right there. They just said, the suspect was a woman. I believe is what we just overheard as that briefing was ending.

HARLOW: We're going to double-check the tape on that, but I believe that you're right. So, we just got our first update directly from Eva Malecki, the U.S. Capitol Hill Police communications director. The headline there, no nexus to terrorism, this was a criminal incident, no nexus to terrorism.

BERMAN: What appeared to be happening they said, it's certainly after 9:00 a.m. this morning, Capitol Police saw an erratic driver. Driving at Independence Ave, which is one of the big avenues. It goes by the U.S. Capitol.

They tried to address this erratic driver. The driver made a U-turn and in the process, nearly struck some officers. They caught up to the driver and then in an attempt while they were attempting to arrest, shots were fired. Now, we don't know exactly by whom. She distinctly, this spokesperson did not say by whom shots were fired. But shots were fired, no one was injured. The suspect is in custody.

HARLOW: And she made no indication that there was anyone else involved which is important, too. This is one person who hit the police cruiser and she did say one other vehicle and that would make sense with the erratic driving. The shots were fired in the process of the arrest. The Capitol Police will lead this investigation. But again, big headline here, everything is operating pretty much like normal around the Capitol with a few extra barricades and no nexus to terrorism.

BERMAN: Looks like some kind of a traffic incident right now and then no nexus to terrorism indicates why we've seen inside the Capitol, still tourists are still there, our reporters are walking around barely noticing much of a difference inside there. But again, you do see these pictures outside where there is a larger security presence. We do see officers there and they are on the crime scene right now.

HARLOW: Cedric Alexander is with us. -- If you were able to hear the briefing from the Capitol Police, you know any questions that would still be at the front of your mind, other than of course, we don't know who the suspect is and we don't know what the motivation was.