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Shots Fired on Capitol Hill; Eyewitnesses Relate What They Saw; Capitol Police Press Conference
Aired October 03, 2013 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We have more eyewitness accounts of what happened. Let's play that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's your name again?
DAVE JONES (PH), WITNESS: Dave Jones (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dave Jones.
And your name?
MELINDA DOCKERY (PH), WITNESS: Melinda Dockery (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you tell me what did you see because, apparently, you were very close. Where were you?
JONES (PH): I was on the steps right outside the circle. And we saw -- we heard gunshots and we saw a car drive by with bullet holes in it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The car had already the bullet holes?
JONES (PH): Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What kind of car was it?
JONES (PH): It was a black car. I couldn't tell you what kind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was chased by the police, being chased by the police, right?
JONES (PH): Yeah, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Spanish)
Did you see who was shooting?
JONES (PH): No. No, we actually don't think there was a shooter. We think that -- we heard that somebody tried to run over the police in a car.
DOCKERTY (PH): Oh, so it was the police that shot at him? That's their version.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their version?
DOCKERTY (PH): Yeah, the police shot at him because he was driving where he wasn't supposed to be.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. OK. And what else did you see around that you can recall?
JONES (PH): Not much. We just saw the car, and then we went in some bushes and hid, so --
DOCKERTY (PH): But the police were very quick to surround us, and they told us not to move, to hit the concrete and don't move.
We could smell the gun powder, so we knew it was very close.
And then, once we -- after a few moments, my son got the wits about him to get in the bushes to hide.
And there were a child and a mother and another visitor in the bushes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you visiting here or are you --
DOCKERTY (PH): We moved here in July. We moved here, so we're just down here to spend the afternoon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, thank you very much, and well -- OK, thanks.
(Speaking Spanish)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, so there you see one of our CNN Espanol correspondents reporting, getting some eyewitness accounts of what's going on.
Let me bring back Deborah Feyerick, who's joining us right now. You've been speaking to your sources, Deb.
What else are you learning?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, here's just to recap what we're learning from this intelligence source, that is that a woman was driving a black car.
She approached a checkpoint by the White House, words were exchanged and an officer was blocking access.
The female driver began to pull away, as this was happening, saw police cars and then began driving at full speed away from the White House, but in the direction of the Capitol.
She was running red lights, I'm told by this source, as she was driving towards the Capitol.
Use of force was authorized. It's unclear whether, in fact, the black car actually came to a stop, but shots were fired at the vehicle, we're told, because police just didn't know who this was or what was going on, and because the behavior of the driver was so out of the normal that they began to fire.
This driver, the female, was indeed hit. They did not realize that there was a child in the car with the woman when they opened fire. The child was removed from the car, but again, we're told that the driver was indeed hit.
Wolf, you have to keep in mind, this took about three minutes from start to finish, from the time that sort of altercation happened at the White House checkpoint to the time that those shots were fired.
Not clear whether, in fact, the woman had a gun. It appears that the shots that were fired came from the police that were in pursuit of this woman, again, not knowing who she was, why she was driving so erratically, why she was running the red lights, or what the intent was.
Wolf?
BLITZER: She was driving from the White House up towards Capitol Hill on Pennsylvania Avenue. There's a red light. There's traffic lights on every corner, literally.
If she's running those lights and police are in pursuit, she managed obviously to get all the way to the Hart Senate Office Building up on Pennsylvania, all the way up on Capitol Hill, which if she's running all those red lights and just driving fast, would only take a few minutes from the White House all the way up Capitol Hill, up to the Hart Senate Office Building.
I just want to alert our viewers. We're standing by. Momentarily, there's supposed to be a news conference. We're going to get some official information, I assume, from U.S. Capitol police who were there.
But this is multi-agency, many law enforcement agencies now. You can see the microphones have been set up. I assume we'll hear from Capitol police, U.S. Capitol police.
We'll also hear, presumably -- maybe we'll hear from the FBI and metropolitan police as well -
FEYERICK: And, Wolf -
BLITZER: -- reminiscent of what we heard just a few weeks ago at the Navy Yard.
Go ahead, Deb.
FEYERICK: The one thing that I want to show our viewers there is that if you look at the image on the right, there's a green sign.
And just in front of it, a little to the left there, that's the black car. That's the vehicle that she was driving. And it looks like they're beginning to speak, actually, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, let's listen, and see if we can hear it.
CHIEF KIM DINE, U.S. CAPITOL POLICE: Good afternoon.
There was a vehicle in the vicinity of the White House that apparently attempted to pass a barricade. That vehicle was attempted to be stopped by Secret Service, Uniformed Division.
Shots were potentially fired. They pursued the vehicle. The vehicle came, struck one of our vehicles here at Second and Maryland -- Second and -- First and Con here, and ended up at Second and Maryland Northeast where it crashed into one of our barricades.
At this time, both scenes are secured. We initially locked down some buildings in the Capitol vicinity. That lockdown has been released.
We have no information that this is related to terrorism or is anything other than an isolated incident.
(CROSSTALK)
DINE: We are working, the Metropolitan Police Department is handling the shooting scene investigation, and obviously, assisting the Secret Service and the U.S. Capitol police.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many people were in the vehicle?
DINE: We are still investigating that. Possibly, we believe there was a child in the car, and we're still collecting those facts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was a police officer shot?
DINE: I don't have condition on the person in the car at this time.
(CROSSTALK)
DINE: Pardon me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) to secure different locations of the federal government, like the White House, Capitol, in case of these incidents?
DINE: No, this appears to be an isolated incident with just one vehicle involved. There's been coordination between all the agencies that I mentioned, including the FBI, so both scenes are under control.
(CROSSTALK)
DINE: I do not have that right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, the condition of the injured officer?
DINE: On the way, as I mentioned, one of our officers was struck in his squad car. He appears to be conscious and breathing, but we're following up on that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And no officer shot, Chief?
DINE: As far as we know, no officer has been shot.
(CROSSTALK)
DINE: Pardon me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The driver of the other car was a lady? Was a woman?
DINE: We believe so.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief Dine, where were shots fired? At the White House and here?
DINE: We're still investigating that. Obviously, we have multiple scenes so we're still collecting evidence.
(CROSSTALK)
DINE: No, it all appears to be one incident, but multiple scenes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were shots fired at the Capitol?
DINE: No, we have no information that shots were fired at the Capitol.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) what location?
DINE: What I'll do in about half an hour, I'll give you an update. How's that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the suspect dead?
DINE: I do not have a condition on the suspect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) barricade up here?
DINE: I will be back at quarter after 4:00.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Chief.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Chief.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
BLITZER: So there you have it, from the U.S. Capitol police. The incident is over. The police believe it was an isolated incident. They have no information that could have been related to terrorism.
It was one vehicle, one driver. The condition of the driver -- he could not specify the condition of the driver. He did believe a child was in the car.
Confirming what we had been reporting that the incident started near the White House, 15th and Pennsylvania. The driver of this vehicle, apparently a woman, driving sporadically -- erratically, shall we say, but very -- in a very suspicious manner, making her way all the way up to the Senate side of the Capitol, apparently crashing into one area, injuring a police officer.
Gunshots were fired. This is what the U.S. Capitol police are saying. Few details are available, but the U.S. Capitol police are continuing to investigate what is clearly, they say, a crime scene.
Two crime scenes, first, on Constitution Avenue Northwest, that's where one U.S. Capitol police officer has been injured in a crash. That police officer has been transferred to a local hospital. No information on the condition of this police officer.
But the vehicle apparently stopped not far from the Hart Senate Office Building, if you're familiar with Capitol Hill. Second and Maryland Avenue Northeast, that's right nearby.
U.S. Capitol police currently working with law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and others, to what they call process the scene.
A non-U.S. Capitol police vehicle was being processed there as part of this crash. On the right part of the screen, you can see that area, including that black vehicle that was involved in this entire incident.
Deb, you just heard Capitol police basically confirming what you had been telling our viewers, but go ahead.
What else did you hear?
FEYERICK: Wolf, you can see actually the two crime scenes on both sides of the screen there.
The one on the left, that is the police car that the female driver allegedly hit while she was being pursued by other police vehicles. We were told that the air bag did deploy, so the image we're seeing there on the left of the screen, that's consistent with what we're being told.
On the right-hand of the screen, you see that is the first -- that also is a crime scene. The car, which is sort of behind a barricade, just near that green sign at the top there, that is the car that the female was driving.
We're being told by multiple sources that the woman approached a checkpoint that is used to gain access into the White House, words were exchanged.
And as the woman began to drive away, she saw a number of police cars and just took off, took off very, very quickly. And that's what sort of raised the suspicions of everybody, raised the concern that perhaps something was certainly not normal.
The police cars began to chase her. She was blowing through different light, and because she was going from the White House to the Capitol, use of force was authorized.
Nobody knew what the motive or the intent was. It's unclear whether the black car, again, on the right of the screen, near the green sign, it's not clear whether the car came to a stop, but shots were fired at the car.
We are being told that the woman was hit. The suspect was hit, police not releasing her condition right now. There was a child in the car, but it does not appear that police knew that when they authorized this use of force, and so the child was removed from the car.
We saw a child being carried away from the scene. The child looked to be certainly in good condition. She was being carried by a police officer, but right now, all of this under active investigation as you can see by looking just at those two crime scenes.
Wolf?
BLITZER: The whole -- and I just want to reiterate to our viewers right now. The incident is over with. The all-clear has been given. The lockdowns have been lifted.
The police just saying both of the crime scenes, both of these areas, have been, in the words of this police officer from the U.S. Capitol police, secured. So that is good news.
But we don't know the condition of the driver who apparently was shot. We don't know the condition of the police officer who was injured in this crash. We do know that the police officer was taken to a local hospital.
We'll probably get more information fairly soon. They did say there would be another news conference coming up fairly soon.
We do know that multiple agencies are now involved, not only U.S. Capitol police but the greater metropolitan Washington, D.C. police are involved, the FBI, I assume the ATF, and others.
Brian Todd is up on Capitol Hill, watching what's going on. Brian, where are you now?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, at the corner of Constitution Avenue and First Street Northwest, where the chief of the Capitol Hill police, Kim Dine, just gave a news conference.
To reiterate what the police said, to put you through the bullet points of what we know, the chief said that at 2:18, approximately, a vehicle tried to run through a barricade near the White House, that vehicle confronted by Secret Service police.
There was a chase and the vehicle ended up near here on Capitol Hill just up the street here, a couple of blocks, where there was a collision with a vehicle and a police vehicle.
We're told that one police officer, at least one police officer, was injured in that collision, that police officer now being treated for injuries.
As he was walking away, I asked for clarity from the chief, and I said. do you have the suspect in custody? The chief said, yes, they do, but they do not know the condition of that suspect.
You also heard something very key from the chief, if you heard the news conference a moment ago, saying they're looking into reports.
They believe there could have been, could have been a child in the car of the suspect who had confronted Secret Service police near the White House and then gave chase toward Capitol Hill here.
But there was at least one collision here on Capitol Hill between the suspect's car and a police vehicle, Wolf. There are reports of active -- of a second active accident scene, but not clear what that entails, the information from that right now, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yeah, well, you're at First and Constitution Avenue Northwest. That's where the police officer was injured in this crash.
We do have some video. I'm going to show to our viewers now, Brian, video of this police officer being Medevaced, if you will, taken aboard this helicopter and carried to a -- brought to a local hospital for treatment.
We do not know the condition of the police officer, although we're told by our John King that the police officer's condition is not believed to be life-threatening. Let's hope for the very best for this police officer being -- who has been taken to a local hospital.
You see the helicopter there, park police on the scene, getting ready, taking this police officer to a local hospital. We'll find out what hospital this police officer was taken to and get a sense of the condition of this police officer very soon.
Brian, when did -- I missed it at the end. When did the police chief, Capitol Hill police chief say the next news conference would take place?
TODD: He indicated he might be back in about a half hour, Wolf. That was about five minutes ago, so hopefully, Chief Dine will come back with more details.
This is clearly still a very fluid situation. You mentioned multiple jurisdictions down here. The U.S. Capitol police, FBI, Washington, D.C. metropolitan police, are all around us as well, so a lot of jurisdictions here.
Still a very active scene, very fluid scene, they're working information. You heard Chief Kim Dine talk about this. They're still working some details. Don't have all the details yet, the condition of the suspect, whether there was a child in the car with that suspect.
There apparently may have been some shots fired at some point during or maybe as the chase was coming to a climax. We did talk to a congressman who walked out of his office just as this was unfolding. This was Congressman Juan Vargas from California. He said he came out. He heard what he thought were shots. He heard what he now thinks were shots, but he said at the time he said he thought it sounded like the backfiring of a car.
He said he was walking on the street when he heard it, didn't think much of it, but then he saw a police officer running toward him, looking very serious. The officer confronted him, asked who he was, what he was doing, asked him if he was a member of Congress.
He said, yes, and the police officer herded him right out of there and got him inside and told him to shelter in place, so that was one congressman, Juan Vargas from California, giving us his count -- his account, excuse me.
He was in some proximity to the incident, apparently, when either the accident happened up the street from here or when shots may have been fired, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Brian, stand by. We've got more video now of this black vehicle that apparently was involved in this incident as it drove.
You can see it right in the middle of your screen right over there, from near the White House, 15th and Pennsylvania, apparently trying to get in through a barricade, in towards the White House area, stopped by the members of the U.S. Secret Service uniformed -- the secret service.
They stopped it, but then the driver, apparently a woman, made a turn up Pennsylvania Avenue towards Capitol Hill, running through traffic lights, getting all the way up to the Senate side where it was stopped.
Apparently gunshots were fired, and that's the vehicle there. You can see it also hit one police -- there was a crash at Second and Maryland, and also First and Constitution where the police officer was injured in that crash.
We have Representative Blake Farenthold of Texas joining us right now.
Congressman, tell us where you were when you -- I don't know if you heard the gunshots or what was going on, but walk us through your personal account of what happened.
REPRESENTATIVE BLAKE FARENTHOLD (R), TEXAS: Well, I'd just gotten back to my office after our weekly Texas Republican delegation lunch, and all of the enunciators, the emergency announcement were started, and my immediate concern is, where is my staff and where is my daughter?
My daughter was having lunch with my communications director, Megan Kronen (ph), and we'd sent an intern to get a vacuum cleaner because there's no janitorial services during the government shutdown.
So I was immediately worried about where the rest of the staff was. Just about then, my daughter and Megan (ph) came bursting in the door.
They were the second to last people who got let into the Cannon Building before the lockdown. And they ran and came in. And about 30 seconds later, somebody pounded on the door, and it was our intern with a vacuum cleaner, and we let him in.
So my immediate concern was for the safety of my staff. We all got on the phone, and I called my mother and my wife. And the staff all called their families as well. We tweeted everybody was safe, but it was certainly a kind of scary day.
BLITZER: That's what we have been hearing from many of your colleagues. It's pretty frightening when you hear the sirens going off, you hear of the advisories from the capitol police, shelter in place, don't leave, get inside some sort of secure room and stay put until word is going on.
Have you gotten any more information about what may have been involved in this incident? Have local -- have Capitol Hill police or others said anything to you, Congressman?
FARENTHOLD: I haven't gotten any inside scoop. All I've -- I've got four televisions in my office, all on a different news channel, and that's pretty much where I'm getting my information.
But I tell you, the timing on this was really kind of scary. The Capitol Hill police are at a lower personnel level because of the shutdown, and I can tell you that my office has been getting more emotional calls than we've gotten on any other issue.
Now, not a whole lot from Texas, but from other area codes, and you know, I was really concerned that this might be something related to what's going on with the government, but the reports now lead me to believe otherwise.
BLITZER: Yeah, leads me to believe as well. And we did hear from the police chief, the U.S. Capitol Hill police chief, Kim Dine, saying that it looks like it was an isolated incident and no connection at all to terrorism or anything along those lines.
One final question before I let you go. An incident like this which clearly scares everyone up on Capitol Hill, staffers, workers, members of Congress, do you think it will propel you guys up there, Democrats and Republicans, to say, you know what, enough is enough, let's get back to work and end this government shutdown?
FARENTHOLD: Listen, I've been advocating to end it as soon as possible anyway. It would -- you know, it's unfortunate that this happened, but maybe some good will come out of it.
BLITZER: Yeah, let's hope indeed. That government shutdown has lasted long enough. Everyone's got to get back to work. And some of these other political issues, you guys can work out separately
Congressman, thanks very much, Blake Farenthold of Texas, watching what's going on. Brian Todd is getting more witness accounts of what happened.
TODD: A riveting account from a man who said he saw a car chase down Pennsylvania Avenue, which is just a couple blocks from us here, down Pennsylvania Avenue, a car he described as a black sedan, maybe a Lexus with tinted windows.
The car turned south on Third Street with five police cars chasing it. According to Travis Gilbert, that's the account he gave.
As he was giving this to my producer, he was quickly taken away by police as a witness to interview, so he witnessed a lot of this unfolding.
Again, his account, he saw a car chase down Pennsylvania Avenue presumably from the White House area this way toward the Capitol, black sedan, possibly a Lexus with tinted windows, turning south on third street, five police cars chasing it.
Another witness told us that she heard four or five bangs like gun shots, then a larger bang like a cannon.
Clearly this was a very scary scene as it played out in the streets between the White House area and this area and just east of here, up the hill on Capitol Hill.
BLITZER: What's it like now where -- obviously, the lockdown has been lifted, there is an all-clear.
Can you move around freely? Are there still areas that have been secured? I assume that's the case.
TODD: There are still areas that are very heavily secured. There's a heavy police presence here.
They are not letting us get really beyond this point on Constitution Avenue past Louisiana Avenue just behind me here up the hill. You can see police blocking the streets.
As you would imagine, there's a media scrum here. It's harder to move around with the reporters and photographers here.
They're impeding us but we're part of it. Anyway, the police not letting us past these points south or east of here at this point.
BLITZER: Hopefully we will get more information on what drove apparently this woman, this woman driver, to drive so dangerously, so recklessly, from near the White House all the way up to Capitol Hill.
We have some more eyewitnesses accounts. Let's play some of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a black car that came from the direction of Pennsylvania Avenue. There were about six police cars chasing it. It came up onto the sidewalk. They cornered it. It backed up. It looked like it had either run into another police car or backed towards police and they opened fire on it.
I heard between seven and ten shots fired. However, the car continued on. Police chased it. A few seconds later, there was what sounded like an explosion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was on the steps right outside the little circle and we saw -- we heard gun shots, then we saw a car drive by with bullet holes in it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The police were very quick to surround us, and they told us not to move, to hit the concrete and don't move.
We could smell the gunpowder so we knew it was very close.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Very frightening few moments there. It lasted, the lockdown, I'm guessing, for at least a half hour, 40 minutes before the lockdown was lifted, the all-clear was given.
There are two crime scenes now, First and Constitution Northwest, if you're familiar with Capitol Hill, Second and Maryland Avenue Northeast, both on the Senate side, not very far away from each other.
A vehicle crashing into one police vehicle, injuring a police officer who was then Medevaced to a local hospital in Washington. We don't know the condition of that police officer. We believe it's not life- threatening.
We don't know the condition of the driver, believed to be a woman. Also, the Capitol Hill police not relaying that information for us, saying that's still unclear. No condition on the driver.
There apparently was a child in the vehicle. We did have some video of a police officer carrying a young child from that black vehicle.
Deb Feyerick has been watching all of this unfold together with us. Deb, the situation has calmed down, obviously, and there are some pictures of the helicopter, the U.S. park police helicopter, taking this police officer who was injured in this crash to a local hospital.
We hope this police officer is going to be OK. We assume this police officer will be OK. We don't have more information.
But what else are you learning now? You see the crime scene there.
FEYERICK: What we do know is that that police officer, he was driving a car that was hit by the black vehicle that was being driven at extremely high speeds.
And one of the reasons that this car chase was taking place is because the driver of the black vehicle simply did not comply with police officers who were trying to get the car to slow down. In fact, the car was going through red lights, was driving somewhat erratically, not slowing down.
It's unclear specifically when police began opening fire on the vehicle, whether the car had stopped or whether it hit something and then came to a stop.
But we do know that because the driver was not obeying commands of police or even slowing down, that it was seen as a situation and that's why the police responded as they did.
We are also being told that apparently cameras are being pulled from the area of the White House where the initial altercation began.
We're told the woman drove up to a White House checkpoint, about 300 yards from the White House, words were exchanged between her and somebody at that checkpoint, and then when she went to drive away, realized there were police cars behind her, and that's when she took off.
So all of this sort of -- nobody understood why she was there, why she was driving so erratically and not obeying what she was told to do which was to stop, and that's why this happened.
We're also told that this took about three minutes from start to finish, but cameras are now being pulled to see exactly what that altercation was about and why it ended as it did, Wolf.
BLITZER: There's very, very good closed circuit TV cameras all around the nation's capitol, whether near the White House or up on Capitol Hill, so they'll have a lot of video to scrutinize precisely what happened.
That video we were showing the viewers just a few seconds ago, that's video of the police officer who was injured in the crash put on that gurney, taken to the helicopter and flown to a local hospital for treatment.
There you see the police officer boarding that helicopter, U.S. park police helicopter, to go to a local hospital. I don't know which hospital it was, probably the Washington Hospital Center, which is not very far away from Capitol Hill, but we'll find out fairly soon.
We're standing by also for another news conference from Capitol Hill police, maybe the FBI and others will be involved as well. but this was -- for those who were up on Capitol Hill, heard the sirens, heard the announcements, shelter in place, shelter in place, do not leave your room, do not exit the buildings, whether the House office buildings or the Senate office buildings or the main U.S. Capitol Building.
This was a pretty frightening situation that was unfolding up on Capitol Hill. And the incident apparently started at 15th and Pennsylvania right outside the White House, the secure area.
Apparently this black vehicle tried to get through that secure area and then when uniformed members of the Secret Service stopped this driver, the driver just made a U-turn and began driving up on Pennsylvania Avenue, running red lights all the way up to the Senate side of Capitol Hill, where these altercations took place.
We have a little bit more eyewitness sound. Let me play it for our viewers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you tell me what did you see because, apparently, you were very close. Where were you?
JONES (PH): I was on the steps right outside the circle. And we saw -- we heard gunshots and we saw a car drive by with bullet holes in it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The car had already the bullet holes?
JONES (PH): Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What kind of car was it?
JONES (PH): It was a black car. I couldn't tell you what kind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was chased by the police, being chased by the police, right?
JONES (PH): Yeah, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Spanish)
Did you see who was shooting?
JONES (PH): No. No, we actually don't think there was a shooter. We think that -- we heard that somebody tried to run over the police in a car.
DOCKERTY (PH): Oh, so it was the police that shot at him? That's their version.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their version?
DOCKERTY (PH): Yeah, the police shot at him because he was driving where he wasn't supposed to be.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. OK. And what else did you see around that you can recall?
JONES (PH): Not much. We just saw the car, and then we went in some bushes and hid, so --
DOCKERTY (PH): But the police were very quick to surround us, and they told us not to move, to hit the concrete and don't move.
We could smell the gun powder, so we knew it was very close.
And then, once we -- after a few moments, my son got the wits about him to get in the bushes to hide.
And there were a child and a mother and another visitor in the bushes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you visiting here or are you --
DOCKERTY (PH): We moved here in July. We moved here, so we're just down here to spend the afternoon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, thank you very much, and well -- OK, thanks.
(Speaking Spanish)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, so there you have eyewitness accounts.
We're going to stay on top of this story.
I'll be back one hour from now in "THE SITUATION ROOM," but it was pretty terrifying at 2:24 when Capitol Hill police issued an alert, shelter in place, gunshots have been reported on Capitol Hill.
Jake Tapper picks up our coverage in "THE LEAD," right now.
