One Dead in Shootout Outside U.S. National Security Agency

WASHINGTON – At least one person died and two others were injured in a shootout at one of the entrances to the U.S. Army base in Maryland that houses the National Security Agency.

The dead man is one of the two attackers who early Monday morning, for reasons that are not yet clear, tried to get through one of the NSA entrances in an SUV.

Although the investigation into the incident is continuing and the secrecy that shrouds the NSA makes getting details about it difficult, terrorism has been ruled out as a motive.

According to a spokesman at Fort Meade, where 11,000 soldiers and 29,000 civilians live and/or work, police guarding the entrances to the NSA facilities opened fire on the vehicle that was trying to get past the control posts.

One of the people in the vehicle was killed on the spot while another was taken to a hospital in Baltimore. In addition, a police officer suffered an injury to an arm, possibly in a collision with the attackers’ vehicle.

According to NBC 4 television, the attackers were dressed as women and inside the vehicle were found a firearm and cocaine.

Images taken by TV helicopters flying over the area showed two vehicles that has collided, one of them clearly a police unit, as well as a body covered with a sheet lying on the asphalt a few yards from the gate to the NSA installation, which sits alongside the busy Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

The incident began when the two people in the vehicle refused to follow the directions of the guards at the Fort Meade gate to leave the high-security zone, where at that hour many workers with entry passes were being admitted.

The guards immediately responded to the situation by setting up barricades, but the driver of the vehicle did not stop until it had crashed into one of the police vehicles blocking access to the facility.

Police opened fire on the vehicle, killing one of the occupants.

The FBI said that there are no indications of any terrorist intent, but the investigation is continuing to determine, among other things, why the attackers were dressed as women.