WASHINGTON D.C (CNN) — Twelve people were killed Monday after at least one shooter opened fire in a rampage at a Navy yard in the nation’s capital, putting government buildings on lockdown and sending police SWAT teams rushing to the scene.
One suspect is dead, but two other gunmen may be on the loose, Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.
“Right now we have multiple pieces of information to suggest that we had at least two other people seen with firearms. … These are people that we believe are involved in some way,” Lanier said. She declined to provide specifics about why authorities believe they were involved.
Authorities are looking for a white man and a black man in military-style clothing who could be connected to the shooting.
A dozen people are confirmed dead after the shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, Lanier said, and others are injured.
Who opened fire at the headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command — and why — remains unclear.
“We still don’t know all the facts. But we do know that several people have been shot and some have been killed,” President Barack Obama said earlier Monday afternoon. “So we are confronting yet another mass shooting. And today it happened on a military installation in our nation’s capital.”
Obama called the shooting a “cowardly act” that targeted military and civilians serving their country.
“They know the dangers of serving abroad,” he said, “but today they faced the unimaginable violence that we wouldn’t have expected here at home.”
Earlier, authorities said a gunman dressed in all black had fired shots inside the Navy yard, injuring at least 10 people.
