by ERIC TUCKER, MICHAEL BALSAMO and COLLEEN LONG
WASHINGTON (AP) — The man who claimed to have bomb in a pickup truck near the U.S. Capitol has surrendered to law enforcement, ending an hourslong standoff on Thursday.
The man, identified by law enforcement officials as Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, of North Carolina, crawled out of the vehicle and was being taken into custody shortly before 2:30 p.m.
He had pulled up outside the library earlier in the day and told police he had a bomb in his truck. An officer saw what appeared to be a detonator in the man’s hand.
The man had been negotiating with police during a standoff that lasted around five hours.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man sitting in a black pickup truck parked on the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress told police he had a bomb Thursday, triggering a standoff in the heart of the nation’s capital.
Officials evacuated a number of buildings around the Capitol and sent snipers to the area after officers saw a man holding what looked like a detonator inside the pickup, which had no license plates. The man was identified as Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, of Grover, North Carolina, according to two people briefed on the matter. Congress is in recess this week, but staffers were seen calmly walking out of the area at the direction of authorities.
Police negotiators were communicating with Roseberry as he wrote notes and showed them to authorities from inside the truck, according to the two people and a third person also briefed on the matter, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.
Authorities were trying to determine whether it was an operable bomb, the officials said. Police gave no immediate details on his motive or any demands.
“My negotiators are hard at work trying to have a peaceful resolution to this incident,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said. “We’re trying to get as much information as we can to find a way to peacefully resolve this.”
