“A lot of 10 a.m. meetings are about to get blown up,” a cable television news producer said as Washington area police and first responders converged Thursday morning on E Street NW, near Union Station. That’s because a police chase that started in Prince George's County, Md., and ended in the alley connecting the Kimpton George Hotel and Kelly’s Irish Times took place next to the Hall of the States, home to MS NOW, C-SPAN, CNBC, NBC News, NewsNation, and Fox News, among other tenants — at the tail end of the morning commute. The scene around Union Station was chaotic, as a suspect in a shooting in Prince George's fled his vehicle on Louisiana Avenue NW, as officers from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Capitol Police and U.S. Park Police responded, lights flashing, sirens blaring, officers on foot with hand guns and long guns drawn, tourists and commuters agape. A police officer across Union Station amid the chase. (Jason Dick/CQ Roll Call) As officers apprehended the suspect in the alley off E Street NW, others looked through the flower bed along the nearby Corner Bakery, searching for evidence. A security guard asked journalists amassing along the windowsills across the street to not tread on the edge. The traffic snarls associated with the incident were likely exacerbated by the extensive road closures and restricted travel routes around downtown D.C. associated with this weekend’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix race. Those include major roads around the Capitol, such as Pennsylvania Avenue, Independence Avenue and other major arteries. One CQ Roll Call editor was on a Red Line Metro car on his way to work when the train was paused at the NoMa-Gallaudet University Station “due to police activity.” It could have been worse, since the third week of August is typically less busy, with Washington worker bees heading for the beach, mountains and anywhere else to avoid the swampy climes of late summer. Police converge on the suspect’s vehicle on Louisiana Avenue NE. (Jason Dick/CQ Roll Call) The chase took place partially in the NoMa neighborhood on First Avenue NE, and featured a “white van going southbound at about 70 miles per hour, pursued by a cop car and a cop motorcycle,” said CQ Roll Call Senior Photographer Tom Williams, who was in the middle of his morning jog amid the fracas. “The van hit some kind of bump and came off the ground” around the former CQ Roll Call newsroom at 77 K Street NE. CNN is just down the street on First Avenue, adding to the newsroom concentration. By 10 a.m., it was mostly over, the suspect in custody and being loaded into an ambulance. An NBC News reporter was told by police she could likely park in the Hall of the States parking garage within the hour. By then, though, a lot of those 10 a.m. meetings had already started.
