News Networks Break In for Capitol Hill Incident

By A.J. Katz 

Shots were fired on Capitol Hill this morning. According to multiple reports, the suspect is a woman who reportedly struck a Capitol Police vehicle and then tried running over several officers who were on foot, per DC Police. At one point Capitol police fired shots, but no one was hit. The female suspect was reportedly apprehended at 3rd and Independence Ave, and has been taken into custody. Police are saying that no one was hit by the suspect’s car, and that police will hold a press conference at Bartholdi Park. More updates to come…

ABC News sent out the following tweet at 9:50 a.m. ET:

MSNBC appears to be the first cable news network to report on the incident. Chris Jansing, hosting the 9 a.m. hour from an outdoor studio in DC, said the following at 9:53 a.m. ET: “We actually have breaking news…shots being fired near the US Capitol. We’ve been hearing a lot of police sirens. I want to go live to our Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt. What have you been able to find out?”

The producers got Hunt on the phone, who reported: “We’re in the early stages here, and we’re trying to get a sense of what exactly has happened on the Capitol. We did hear reports of shots fired. I spoke briefly to a police officer inside the Capitol building who is on the radio system that lets those police officers know exactly what’s going on. Whatever may have happened is now concluded…”

CNN’s John Berman and Poppy Harlow broke the news from the network’s New York studios at 9:56 a.m. The duo originally reported that it was a male suspect: “I was looking at my computer because we have some breaking news…All right, we’ve been getting reports over the last few minutes that there were shots fired on Capitol Hill. This is on Independence Avenue on the House side of Capitol Hill for people who know the geography there, and I’ll read you what I have in front of me: ‘Metropolitan police tell CNN that a man driving on Independence Avenue ran into a Capitol police cruiser, and continued to run over Capitol police officers earlier this morning.’ Now that happened at about 9:30 and that is when we got reports of shots fired…”

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Fox News’s Shannon Bream broke the news from New York at 9:59 a.m: “We’re getting word of some activity on Capitol Hill on the house side. There are all kinds of conflicting accounts of what’s happening. We’re hearing of armored vehicles and alerts telling congressional staff to avoid the area.”

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Bream then went to correspondent Mike Emanuel, who was reporting live from Capitol Hill. Fox was the first network to have someone reporting on-camera from the Hill.

“We’re outside the Rayburn House office building and you see police activity. Our understanding is a suspect in a vehicle hit a police cruiser and then may have hit several other pedestrians in the immediate area. Out of abundance of caution they’ve shut down the area behind me and are investigating. We understand the suspect has been apprehended but we don’t have a lot of other details. The situation here as the business day is starting on Capitol Hill there’s a lot of going on and so they are shutting it down to make sure there’s no other danger at this point, but our understanding is a suspect has been taken into custody after hitting police cruiser and perhaps sitting several pedestrians at a busy time in Capitol Hill with the workday just getting underway…”

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Fox News sent out an “alert” tweet right as Bream started reporting on the incident:

Here’s a tweet from CBS News at 10:05 a.m. ET:

CNN tweeted at 10:15 a.m.:

An update from CBS News at 10:30 a.m.:

At 10:34 a.m., NBC News tweeted:

 

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