FBI: NSA Shooting Not Tied To Terrorism

This June 6, 2013, file photo shows the National Security Administration (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md., where the US Cyber Command is located. U.S. officials say the Trump administration, after months of delay, is finalizing plans to revamp the nation's military command for defensive and offensive cyber-operations. The plan would eventually split it from the intelligence-focused National Security Agency in hopes of intensifying America's ability to wage cyber war against the Islamic State group and other foes.(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

With the news coming out of Parkland, Florida on Wednesday, it was probably pretty easy to miss what looked like a terrorist attack at the NSA campus on Fort Meade in Maryland the same day. However, it appears that despite those first glances, the event wasn’t actually terrorism.

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The FBI doesn’t believe terrorism played any role in a shooting at the National Security Administration campus at Maryland’s Fort Meade, an agency spokesperson said Wednesday.

“We do not believe there is any nexus to terrorism at this point in time, and believe that this was an isolated incident,” Gordon Johnson, special agent in charge at the FBI’s Baltimore Field Division office, told reporters. “We ask for your patience as the investigation continues.”

Federal investigators said three men riding in a black SUV with New York tags tried to breach an NSA security gate around 6:55 a.m. Wednesday. The vehicle crashed into a concrete barrier after officers opened fire. An officer, a nearby civilian and one of the suspects were wounded and hospitalized.

“At this point we don’t believe any of the injuries were the result of gunfire,” Johnson said, noting the civilian and officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries. The suspect’s condition remains unknown.

Johnson said all three suspect are in police custody and the FBI’s investigation is ongoing. “We are conducting interviews, trying to talk to them, figure out why they were here,” he said.

It’s not the first time gunfire has erupted at the NSA security gate, the Associated Press reports. A Baltimore man died and a second was wounded after ignoring commands from law enforcement to leave the NSA campus in March 2015. The men, riding in a stolen Ford Explorer, rammed the vehicle into a police car during the incident.

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If it wasn’t terrorism, then I don’t know what it was. The only other possibility I can think of is a prime case of “play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”

There are a handful of places that anyone with half a brain knows aren’t the kind of facilities where you just decide to run a barricade. The NSA headquarters, the CIA headquarters, the FBI headquarters, the Pentagon and the White House top the list. You can also add pretty much any military base to that list.

Yet someone seems to have done just that.

I can’t wait to hear the excuses on this one either. What, their brakes failed? Did they misunderstand the warnings to stop as an invitation to come on in?

Regardless, I think I speak for all of us when I say I’m glad this wasn’t terrorism-related. We have enough on our plates with Parkland, and the last thing we need right now is to have a debate about combatting terrorism. Instead, we apparently get a handful of guys who had a major case of the stupids, no matter what their actual motivation was.

At least there are no life-threatening injuries, and we can all move on…except for me who wants to hear exactly what the excuse is on this one.

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