WASHINGTON: The US Capitol Hill authorities have said that the emergency call on the presence of an alleged active shooter at Senate buildings on Wednesday may have been a bogus call.
Following the reports of an alleged active shooter at Senate buildings, the US Capitol Police chief Thomas Manger said, “This may have been a bogus call.”
The US Capitol Police was standing by to prepare the Senate office buildings for re-entry. “The USCP is standing by to prepare the Senate office buildings for re-entry. There is no active threat at this time”, the Capitol Police tweeted.
Right after the emergency call was made today, the Capitol Police was alerted and urged the people to take ‘Shelter-In-Place’. Officials were locked down inside the Senate buildings when the threat alert was issued.
“I am fine but I am locked down in my office. There is an active shooter threat-as you have heard”, officials inside the building confirmed. According to the police, they continued to stay in touch with the people there, as the investigation continued.
“Our officers are searching in and around the Senate Office buildings in response to a concerning 911 call. Please stay away from the area as we are still investigating. We will continue to communicate with the public here”, the US Capitol Police tweeted.
The Capitol Police, however, noted that there were no confirmed reports of gunshots. The Senate buildings were cleared at the time the alert was received.
“If you are inside the Senate Buildings, everyone inside should be sheltering in place as the report was for a possible active shooter. It should be noted that we do not have any confirmed reports of gunshots,” the US Capitol Police said.
With increasing incidents of gun violence in the United States, President Joe Biden had said that the US needs to ban assault weapons for the sake of protecting children and families or raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21.
Earlier in February, US President Joe Biden said that the country needs more resources to reduce gun crime and it’s high time to ban assault weapons again amid a rise in mass shootings.
In his first major speech to a divided Congress, after Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, Joe Biden said, “10 years ago the ban was law, mass shootings went down. After Republicans let it expire, mass shootings tripled. Let’s finish the job and ban assault weapons again”.
He further added by saying that the US needs more resources to fight back against the ongoing situation in the country as gun violence continues to stay on the rise.
“We need more resources to reduce violent crime and gun crime, community intervention programs…All this can help prevent violence in the first place…Ban assault weapons once and for all. We did it before. I led the fight to ban them in 1994”, Biden said during the State of the Union (SOTU) address on Capitol Hill earlier. (ANI)