Man fatally shoots himself after crashing into barricade near US Capitol

A man is dead after driving his car into a barricade near the US Capitol in Washington, DC and then firing shots in the air as he climbed out of the burning car before fatally shooting himself.

The incident happened just before 4 a.m. Sunday at a vehicular barricade erected on East Capitol Street and 2nd Street in Washington.

Capitol Police said the man, whose identity has not been released, crashed into the barricade and when he got out of the car, the vehicle burst into flames.

The man then opened fire and fired several shots in the air as police approached. He then turned the gun on himself and was later pronounced dead.

No other injuries were reported and police do not believe officers returned fire. A motive for the incident is not known at this time, but the police are investigating.

A man shot himself dead early Sunday morning after driving his car into a barricade near the US Capitol in Washington DC. No one was injured and a motive is not yet known

Capitol Police said the man, whose identity has not been released, crashed into the barricade and when he got out of the car, the vehicle burst into flames

Police said in a statement, “It does not appear that the man was targeting a member of Congress” and that investigators are looking into the man’s background while trying to determine a motive.

Both the House of Representatives and Senate are on recess and very few employees are working in the Capitol complex at this hour.

A tow truck removes a car that crashed into a barricade at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on Sunday

The man got out of the burning vehicle, opened fire and fired several shots in the air as police approached. He then turned the gun on himself and was later pronounced dead

The US Capitol Police officer works near a police barricade on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, after a man drove his car into the vehicular barricade just after 4 a.m. and began shooting

The shooting comes at a time when law enforcement agencies across the country are facing a growing number of threats and federal officials in the days since the Mar-a-Lago Florida property was raided.

The attack is reminiscent of an incident when a man drove a vehicle into two Capitol police officers at a checkpoint in April 2021, killing them Officer William “Billy” Evans, 41, who was an 18-year veteran of the force.

The driver, Noah Green, 25, got out of the car with a knife and was shot dead by a third officer after pouncing on him. Investigators believe Green was delusional and increasingly had suicidal thoughts.

Capitol Police Officer William “Billy” Evans (right), 41, who was struck by Noah Green’s (left) car in the Capitol in April 2021, died from multiple blunt force injuries to the head

Sunday’s incident is reminiscent of an attack in 2021 (pictured) when a man drove a vehicle into two Capitol police officers at a checkpoint in April 2021, killing officer William “Billy” Evans

Evans, father of two, grew up in North Adams, Massachusetts, a close-knit city of about 13,000 in the Northwest of the state.

His death came nearly three months after the January 6 riots at the Capitol that killed five people, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died a day after the riot.

Barbed wire fences had surrounded the Capitol for months after pro-Trump rioters stormed the building.

The fences have since been removed and thousands of National Guardsmen deployed in response to the January riot have since returned home, but many on Capitol Hill remain nervous.