A rented SUV tries to enter a secured area of the top-secret National Security Agency, leaving two people in custody.
FORT MEADE, Md. — Two people were in federal custody Wednesday, and a third person was recovering from injuries after authorities said the driver of a rented sport utility vehicle tried to enter a secured area of the top-secret National Security Agency.
Authorities quickly concluded the incident was not terrorism. In late afternoon, an FBI spokesman said one theory is the driver mistakenly turned onto a restricted parkway exit and panicked when he saw heavily armed police.
“Until we complete all the interviews, we just can’t say definitively,” said David Fitz, the spokesman.
Other aspects of the inquiry were either not divulged or not yet known, including who fired gunshots into the SUV’s windshield and how the vehicle crashed into a concrete barrier and wound up facing oncoming traffic headed into a parking lot.
Authorities said they do not believe any of the injured were struck by bullets. In addition to the hospitalized driver, whose condition officials did not reveal, an NSA police officer and a bystander were hurt, although not seriously.
Those injuries occurred shortly before 7 a.m. at a visitors gate to the sprawling listening post on Fort George G. Meade, off the Baltimore Washington Parkway and Md. Route 32.
Gordon Johnson, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore field office, said that “preliminarily, gunfire was directed at the vehicle.”
It is not uncommon for motorists to take an exit in error from the Parkway and end up at the NSA. A brown sign at the exit, similar to those used to mark national parks, says “NSA” and has an arrow pointing up the ramp to the site. Below the “NSA”, in large type, the sign states “Restricted Entrance.”