Naval Yard Locked Down After Reports Of Shooters

The Washington D.C. Naval Yard was in lockdown after reports of two active shooters Thursday morning, according to USA Today and tweets from local news stations. There have been no casualties, according to WUSA9. An employee in the 41-acre facility told WUSA9 that alarms were sounding and all of the buildings had been locked down. The U.S. Navy also said on Twitter that a lockdown and a shelter-in-place was in effect, but that no incident had been confirmed. The lockdown began around 7:30 a.m., according to WUSA9.

U.S. Park Police, U.S. Marshals, and Homeland Security officers responded to the scene and local roads were closed, according to USA Today. A defense official told ABC News that the situation at the Navy yard is based on a report of a "suspicious person," and that no gunmen have actually been confirmed, according to a tweet from the news station. Alternate accounts said an official told the Associated Press that shots were reported by one person inside of a building, but investigators haven't found evidence of anyone being shot or of shots fired, according to tweets from WUSA9. Nikki Burdine, a reporter for WUSA9, tweeted that police told her Navy officials reported two shooters. Navy yard employees were allegedly told to take shelter in their offices and turn off all the lights before being evacuated, according to WUSA9.

People were evacuated from Building 197, which was the scene of a mass shooting in Sept. 2013 that killed 12 people. Employees in the building told WUSA9 that they "couldn't believe this was happening again."

D.C. fire officials who swept the campus reported no injuries, according to WUSA 9, but police were still tightly controlling the flow of pedestrians and traffic at the Navy Yard Metro Station. Officials have confirmed that everyone on the base was accounted for.

Nancy McCord told the Washington Post that her husband Michael was in lockdown in Building 197 — the site of the shooting in 2013. He said the scene was “pretty much a mirror image” of 2013. McCord said her husband barely missed being shot by alleged shooter Aaron Alexis, so this incident brought back terrifying memories:

He feels safe, but he’s distraught and upset. This is just like — wow, this is happening again.

Alexis was killed in 2013 in a gun battle with police. The shooting was the worst loss of life in the region since the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon.

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