Armed Intruder Prompts Lockdown at Joint Base Andrews as Vice President Lands

The army base in Maryland that the president and the vice chairman use to journey to and from Washington was placed on lockdown on Sunday evening when two folks, no less than certainly one of whom was armed, bypassed a safety checkpoint at concerning the time that Vice President Kamala Harris and 4 Cupboard members landed there, army officers mentioned.

The 2 folks drove via the checkpoint on the primary gate and “failed to stick to instructions of safety personnel,” Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Md., mentioned in an announcement on Sunday evening.

The authorities on the base, within the Maryland suburbs of Washington, stopped the intruders’ car with “limitations,” however they fled, the assertion mentioned. One in all them was apprehended, however the different was nonetheless being sought late Sunday evening.

“We are able to verify that the person who was apprehended had a weapon, however no pictures have been fired,” the bottom mentioned within the assertion. The authorities didn’t establish the one that was apprehended.

Ms. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, have been safely flown off the bottom on Marine Two, the vice-presidential helicopter, though it was unclear in the event that they left earlier than or after they heard concerning the lockdown, in response to reporters who had simply traveled to Selma, Ala., with Ms. Harris.

Cops searched the grounds and the automobiles on the scene, together with a shuttle containing the reporters.

Site visitors leaving the bottom was halted whereas police enforced the lockdown, creating a protracted line stretching again from a primary gate. Police automobiles and helicopters circled the bottom.

Ms. Harris, Mr. Emhoff and the 4 Cupboard members — Training Secretary Miguel Cardona; Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; Housing Secretary Marcia Fudge; and Michael S. Regan, the administrator of the Environmental Safety Company — had simply flown into the bottom on Air Pressure Two, in response to the reporters who had traveled with them.

The vice chairman had traveled within the morning to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the civil rights march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

In February 2021, an intruder on the base boarded a airplane usually utilized by senior authorities officers and army leaders. The breach prompted the authorities to order a assessment of safety at Air Pressure bases worldwide.

The same lockdown on the base occurred in 2016 after there have been stories of an energetic gunman, grounding then-Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s flight to Ohio. It got here the identical day the bottom had deliberate to carry an energetic shooter response drill. The stories of a gunman turned out to be false.