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A North Carolina man claiming to have a bomb near the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. has surrendered to law enforcement.
Floyd Ray Roseberry drove his black pick-up truck onto a sidewalk near the Library of Congress around 9:15 a.m. on Thursday morning and told police that he had a bomb. One officer said that Roseberry appeared to be holding an object that looked like a detonator.
That kicked off hours of negotiations, during which Roseberry was live streaming on Facebook as he sat in his truck. Meanwhile, workers evacuated from two nearby office buildings for the Library of Congress as well as the Cannon House Office Building and the Supreme Court. Technicians from the F.B.I. and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive also responded to the scene, as did Metropolitan Police.
“The revolution is on. It’s here… I’m ready to die for the cause,” Roseberry told viewers on Facebook. He also said on the stream that he wanted President Joe Biden to call him.
Addressing Biden, Roseberry said, “It’s your call. You’ve got an option. You can shoot me, kill me right here and blow up two-and-a-half city blocks… I ain’t here to hurt nobody. If I was, I wouldn’t have told them to tell people to leave. I would have gunned this motherfucker and rode it right up in your front door.”
After approximately 90 minutes of streaming, Facebook deactivated Roseberry’s live stream and his Facebook profile. “Not only deactivated the live stream, but we also removed his profile from Facebook and are continuing to investigate,” Andy Stone, director of policy communications at Facebook, said on Twitter.
Roseberry surrendered in the afternoon following lengthy negotiations with law enforcement, who gave him a dry-erase board to communicate after he refused a phone delivered by a robot, police said.
“He got out of the vehicle and surrendered and the tactical units that were close by took him into custody without incident,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger told reporters at a news conference, adding, “He gave up and did not resist.”
Manger said police do not yet know if there are explosives in Roseberry’s vehicle. The chief added that Roseberry’s motives were still unclear.
Biden has not yet commented on the event, but an administration official told CNN that “the White House is receiving regular updates from law enforcement.”
This is a developing news story and will continue to be updated.
