Police have identified the suspect as 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry. The incident prompted multiple buildings in the area to be evacuated Thursday as authorities responded to an “active bomb threat investigation,” the USCP wrote on Twitter.
Roseberry had been live-streaming from the scene, USCP Chief Tom Manger said. A roughly half-hour Facebook video showed him inside a truck, holding a cannister that he said was a bomb and speaking about a “revolution.” The video and Roseberry’s Facebook profile have since been removed.
Manger told reporters later Thursday that authorities couldn’t yet identify a motive.
Manger, who said that so far there is “no indication” Roseberry was acting with others, added that the area remains an active crime scene, as officials still have to search the truck to make sure it’s safe.
On Roseberry’s now-removed Facebook page, he frequently made pro-Trump posts and posted videos from former President Donald Trump’s “Million MAGA March” on November 14.
In video posted Thursday, Roseberry called himself a “patriot.” He said he doesn’t care if Trump ever becomes president again but also that he thinks “all Democrats need to step down.”
Multiple buildings evacuated
Roseberry drove a black pickup truck onto the sidewalk in front of the Library of Congress at 9:15 a.m. ET, claiming he had a bomb and displayed what looked like a detonator to the officer on the scene, according to the chief.
Negotiators were in communication with Roseberry and were trying to come to a “resolution,” Manger told reporters at a press conference earlier Thursday near the Capitol.
The pickup truck Roseberry drove to the scene does not have license plates, sources told CNN.
Two Library of Congress buildings — the Jefferson and the Madison — and the Cannon House Office Building were evacuated earlier Thursday due to a suspicious vehicle in the vicinity, according to alerts sent to staffers viewed by CNN.
Staffers in the Madison and Jefferson buildings on Thursday were alerted by email to remain calm and relocate — and not to exit toward First Street. Those in Cannon were advised to relocate to the Longworth House Office Building using the Capitol’s underground tunnels.
The Senate and House are not in session, and most lawmakers are not currently in their offices.
The Supreme Court was also evacuated on the recommendation of US Capitol Police, according to a spokesperson for the court, which is closed to the public because of Covid-19.
The FBI said in a statement that its Washington field office’s National Capital Response Squad was responding to the incident. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was also responding, the agency said on Twitter.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thanked the officials who responded to the incident in a statement later Thursday, writing: “The immense gratitude of the Congress is with all law enforcement officers who today and all days sacrifice to keep the Capitol Complex and those within it safe.”
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the bomb threat on Capitol Hill, according to a White House official, who said the President “is receiving regular updates from law enforcement” on the matter.
This story has been updated with additional information.
