2 freed after shots fired at SUV in NSA campus confrontation

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(FILES) View of the National Security Agency (NSA) in the Washington suburb of Fort Meade, Maryland, on January 25, 2006. Authorities are investigating a possible shooting at the National Security Agency (NSA) on the morning of February 14, 2018. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:30am, 16 Feb 2018Updated: 5:30am, 16 Feb 2018

Two of the three people who were in a sports utility vehicle that was stopped and fired upon when it tried to enter the National Security Agency campus without authorisation have been released, an FBI spokesman said on Thursday.

NSA police turned over the other person to the Howard County Sheriff’s Office, because he was wanted on allegations of being behind on child support payments, said Dave Fitz, the spokesman for the FBI’s Baltimore field office.

The man, Javonte Alhajie Brown, 24, was expected to be released sometime on Thursday, said Deputy Christopher Adams, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office.

Police tape blocks a visitor's entrance to the headquarters of the National Security Agency (NSA) after a shooting incident at the entrance in Fort Meade, Maryland, on February 14, 2018. Photo: AFP

Fritz said that the FBI investigation is ongoing to determine why the black SUV carrying the three people tried to enter a top-secret intelligence site at Fort Meade. Investigators are considering the theory that the vehicle made a wrong turn and ended up at the NSA gate.

“The FBI continues to believe that yesterday’s encounter was an isolated incident,” Fitz said in a statement. “Our investigation continues and we do not see a nexus to terrorism.”