3 people injured after SUV tries to enter NSA campus

FORT MEADE, MD. — An unauthorized vehicle tried to enter the secure campus of the National Security Agency at Fort Meade on Wednesday morning, sparking a confrontation that left three people injured, authorities said.

Gunshots were fired during the incident, but officials said they did not believe any of the injuries resulted from gunfire.

Gordon Johnson, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore field office, would not give details about who opened fire but did say that, preliminarily, it looks like all gunfire was directed toward the vehicle.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, John- son said the FBI was still col- lecting evidence but believes it was an isolated incident.

“I cannot emp h asize enough that we believe there is no indication that this has a nexus to terror- ism,” Johnson told reporters gathered at a parking lot next to the National Cryptologic Museum.

Johnson said the three injured were the driver of the vehicle, an NSA police offi- cer and a civilian onlooker. He would not give any details about how they were injured.

Two other people who were in the vehicle have been taken into custody and were being questioned, Johnson said. The injuries suffered by the police officer and the onlooker did not appear to be life threatening, he said.

The incident began when the vehicle tried to enter the spy agency’s campus without authorization around 7 a.m., the NSA said in a statement.

The FBI is leading the investigation.

Images from local news outlets showed authorities surrounding two handcuffed people after a black SUV ran into a barrier outside the Maryland base.

Johnson said the vehicle had New York license plates and he believed it was a rental car. He said he did not know why the people in the vehicle were at the facility.