WASHINGTON: Police officers killed one person and injured another outside the US National Security Agency on Monday when a car with two people tried to ram security gates.

Fox News reported that both men were dressed as women.

The NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, near Washington, are close to two major highways and are heavily guarded. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation told reporters it believed the incident was not related to terrorism.

Fort Meade is also home to 95 units from all branches of the US armed forces. About 11,000 military employees and 29,000 civilians work there. Some 6,000 people also live on the base.

“FBI Baltimore is investigating a shooting incident which occurred this morning at a gate at the National Security Agency at Fort Meade just off I-295 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland,” said a statement FBI emailed to the media.

“The shooting scene is contained and we do not believe it is related to terrorism.” FBI Evidence Response teams were processing the crime scene and interviewing witnesses. “We are working … to determine if federal charges are warranted,” the statement said.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz said President Barack Obama “has been briefed on this morning’s incident at the National Security Agency and will be updated as appropriate”.

Shots on various television networks showed two vehicles at a damaged intersection, one of them belonged to NSA police. One video showed a woman’s wig on the ground outside of a black SUV at the scene.

Police said the damaged gate was far from the main buildings.

This is the second security incident this month involving the NSA. At the beginning of March, a former state correctional officer was arrested, accused in a string of Maryland shootings, including one at Fort Meade.

The NSA is an intelligence agency responsible for global monitoring, collection, decoding, translation and analysis of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2015

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