A manhunt is underway in Pennsylvania after a man slammed his car into the metal gates outside of the FBI’s Pittsburgh office in the early hours of Wednesday.
FBI Special Agent Christopher Giordano told ABC News that the incident occurred at 2:40 am. Giordano identified the suspect as Donald Henson, a military veteran resident of Penn Hills, a suburb of the city.
“We look at this as an act of terror against the FBI. This was a targeted attack on this building. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but we are going to exhaust every ability we have under the federal law to find, apprehend, and prosecute this subject to the fullest extent,” the agent said. Giordano also noted that there was “some vulgarity” written inside of Henson’s car.
According to the FBI, after the crash, Henson could be seen getting out of his car and attempting to affix an American flag to the gate. Giordano said the suspect was identified through surveillance video and his driver’s license. Nobody was hurt as a result of the crash.
Giordano also said that Henson came to the FBI’s office recently to make a complaint, but that he “didn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
“We contacted him and let him know that there was no federal crime we were able to charge,” Giordano added.
Video broadcast from local media in Pittsburgh shows a white sedan with a door open that crashed into the gate.
Eye-witness Nakeisha Brown told WTAE she heard tyres screeching and then witnessed the suspect exiting his vehicle.
“He got out and went around the passenger side and pulled something out of the passenger side. I thought it was a gun but it happened to be a flag and he just set it on that fence and started yelling out some words and just took off.”
Another witness, Cierra Posey, said that the suspect “just walked away like nothing happened.”
The incident comes as the nation remains on edge in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah last week.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro spoke out on Tuesday about political violence in the U.S.
“Leaders have a responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity – and as I have made clear time and time again, this type of violence has no place in our society, regardless of what motivates it, who pulls the trigger, who throws the molotov cocktail, or who wields the weapon.”
