US Capitol officer killed in a car attack

After a man rammed a car into two Capitol Police officers at a barricade outside the US Capitol and then emerged wielding a knife, a Capitol Police officer was killed.

The Police opened fire on the suspect, who was killed.

The attack, which police said did not appear to be terrorism-related at first, forced the Capitol complex to lock down.

It was the department's second line-of-duty death this year, as it continues to recover from the Jan. 6 insurgency.

Yogananda Pittman, acting chief of the United States Capitol Police, told a news conference that he drove into the officers then hit a barricade and got out of the car, lunging at them with a knife in his hand.

One officer was killed and the other was injured, she said.

“It does not appear to be terrorism-related but obviously we’ll continue to investigate,” said Robert Contee, acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington.

Police said the suspect was unknown to them, they had yet to determine what had motivated him, and they did not identify him.

“Clearly this was someone who was actively trying to just get at whoever or whatever – we just don’t know right now, so we have a responsibility to investigate that to get to the bottom of this. Whether the attack was at law enforcement, or whoever, we have a responsibility to get to the bottom of it and we’ll do that,” Contee said.

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US spy agencies warned in mid-March of an ongoing threat that racially motivated violent extremists, such as white supremacists, will carry out mass-casualty attacks on civilians while militia groups target police and government personnel and buildings.