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Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham sent the following email out to the Columbia Heights email list just before 1 p.m.:
Dear Friends,This isn't the only bomb threat/suspicious package we've heard about today. Reader MichaelAt approximately 11:30 am, Target received a call there is an explosive device in the building. An off duty MPD officer working at Target received the call and reported it to Management.
Management has evacuated the building as a result of what MPD says was a phone threat. 200 persons have been evacuated. I have spoken personally to the MPD officers who are in charge of the sweep. They see this as very possibly routine they are taking all due precautions. The dogs are entering the building now.
Explosive Ordinance Division (EOD) with the MPD is on the scene. 14th St has been closed between Irving St. and Park Rd.
Inspector Delgado has advised the EOD sweep of the building will take approximately 45 minutes.
Bests, Councilmember Jim Graham
Nemeth also wrote in to tell us that part of Pennsylvania Ave. near 2nd SE, not far from the Library of Congress, has been locked down in a similar manner.
Photo by IntangibleArts
Here's what Michael told us:
Authorities have locked down Penn Ave around 2nd and 3rd and have told everyone to get off the street and stay away from windows and doors. The Capitol Police have sent cops around to make sure that is followed.We'll keep you posted when we learn more.Word is there is a Jeep Cherokee is being dismantled. Cops are openly armed. There may be different units, but without access to outside, there's no way to tell.
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Capitol Hill Police are calling that Independence Ave at 2nd Street. They're asking vehicular traffic to avoid the area for 2 blocks.
Staff at the Library of Congress have been under a "precautionary relocation" away from windows in certain segments of all 3 buildings for a few hours now, and aren't allowed to move through certain hallways, nor leave through any exits near Independence or 2nd.
Doesn't CM Graham realize how completely idiotic it is to sign off on ALL of his emails with Bests... I mean how glib of a sign off can you get on a bomb threat email....
Well, kudos to Columbia Heights. A few years ago, people wouldn't even think of blowing parts of it up. Now this. Before you know it, Alan Rickman will start taking hostages in the top floor bungalows, and Bruce Willis will have to pitch snappy one-liners before blowing it all to hell. That road to gentrification just keeps getting sweeter.
how many of those email you think he actually writes, and how many are written by an aide?
Is Nicholas Cage in town trying to solve the mystery of where is Bush's brain? It certainly isn't in DC. I bet it is up the nose of the Statue of Liberty.
Maybe they took the giant red target a little too seriously...
Are bomb threats ever real? It seems like they only exist in movies.
In real life, people who want to blow stuff up generally don't announce it in advance.
Oh noes!!!! How am I going to get my Hurricanehannapocolypse toilet paper/Chef-Boy-R-Dee/flashlight batteries/Blue-Ray disc player/Issac Mizrahi poncho if the Target is closed???
Does anyone know what happened on 14th near Constitution? On the way to work I got caught in some serious traffic and we could all see just a sea of flashing lights ahead on 14th above Constitution. I've heard a ton about the CH evacuation and the Penn & Independence Ave SE incident, but nothing about this... only rumors that some buildings were evacuated?
There was a fire this morning at the JW Marriot on 14th...no idea what time you were traveling to work, but maybe this was it?
"In real life, people who want to blow stuff up generally don't announce it in advance."
The IRA did this for several of their large attacks.
@Politburo
That's sort of like claiming responsibility in advance. They had a cause and a track record. I'm willing to bet they didn't do it anonymously.
This is clearly just some asshole kid playing a joke. Several times in college I would show up for class and the building would be sealed off for a bomb threat. It was always probably some jackass who forgot to study for an exam.
I guess it's easy to mistake an in-store Taco Bell for an explosives factory.
There was a bomb threat last night at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception over in Brookland. Crazy times.