Cincinnati: Police were locked in a standoff on Thursday with an armed man who tried to breach the FBI building in Cincinnati, Ohio, earlier in the day before fleeing and exchanging gunfire with officers, authorities said.

The incident was still active as of Thursday afternoon but contained, an Ohio state official told reporters in a press briefing. Authorities said no officials were injured and the suspect was not successful in breaching the building.

“Law enforcement has traded shots with a male suspect who is wearing a gray shirt and body armor,” Clinton County Emergency Management Agency said earlier, urging people in the area to stay inside and lock their doors.

NBC News reported that the suspect, who was armed with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, fired a nail gun into the building. Authorities shut down two highways and imposed an area lockdown.

The suspect was fleeing in a white vehicle when he fired shots, authorities said.

The man tried to breach the FBI building’s Visitor Screening Facility before fleeing north onto Interstate 71, the FBI Cincinnati field office wrote on Twitter. Details and the motive were unclear.

The FBI has been the subject of online threats since its agents searched former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate this week to probe whether he illegally removed records from the White House as he was leaving office.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2022