A North Carolina man turned himself in to police Thursday after saying he parked a bomb in his truck in front of the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill.
The suspect, 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry, stepped out of his black pickup truck after a standoff that resulted in the evacuation of the library, the Supreme Court, a House of Representatives office building, and the Republican National Committee offices.
Roseberry, who last lived in Grover, North Carolina, posted several videos online while he was in his truck.
“He got out of the vehicle and surrendered, and the tactical units that were nearby took him into custody without incident,” said US Capitol police chief Tom Manger.
Earlier Thursday, Manger told reporters, “My negotiators are working hard to find a peaceful solution to this incident.”
Manger said Roseberry pulled his truck onto the sidewalk in front of the Library of Congress at around 9:15 a.m.
When Capitol Police responded to a call regarding the truck, “The truck driver told the responding officer that he had a bomb and what the officer said appeared to be a detonator in the man’s hand,” said Manger.
“So we immediately evacuated the surrounding buildings,” said Manger.
A pickup truck is parked on the sidewalk in front of the Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building seen from a window of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Thursday, August 19, 2021.
Alex Brandon | AP
Roseberry made anti-government statements, according to police officers speaking to NBC News.
A Facebook livestream appears to show Roseberry in his truck in front of the Library of Congress.
Facebook removed the stream about 90 minutes after the video was recorded, said a company spokesman.
Officials said Roseberry claimed to have a propane tank in the truck’s cab.
Two law enforcement officers told NBC that he had communicated with authorities by writing on a dry-erase board he had in the vehicle.
Bomb technicians from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on site alongside FBI negotiators.
A warning was issued to the people in the Cannon House office block asking them to leave that building and move to the Longworth House office block.
On Thursday, August 19, 2021, people are being evacuated from the James Madison Memorial Building, a building belonging to the Library of Congress in Washington, as law enforcement officers investigate a report on a pickup truck with an explosive device near the U.S. Capitol.
Alex Brandon | AP
The Congress is currently on hiatus. The Supreme Court does not meet either.
The White House was monitoring the situation and received updates from law enforcement.
Subways bypass the Capitol South station because of the investigation, said the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
– Additional coverage by CNBCs Brian Schwartz
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