Photo by Brian Allen

Update: NBC and ABC have reported that the suspect is a Tennessee man who previously interrupted a House session in 2015. According to The Daily Beast, Larry Dawson was also arrested on charges of assault on a police officer and unlawful conduct in an October incident.

Original:

The suspect in the Capitol Visitor Center shooting this afternoon is “known” to the U.S. Capitol Police “through previous contacts,” Chief Matthew Verderosa said at an afternoon press conference.

Verderosa declined to name the suspect, who is currently in surgery. The suspect’s condition is unknown. Charges have not yet been filed.

No officers were injured in the shooting, as some early reports indicated, and an uninvolved female bystander has been treated for minor injuries.

Around 2:40, the suspect drew “what appeared to be a weapon and pointed it” during a routine administrative security screening, Verderosa said. It is unclear how many officers fired their weapons in response. A weapon has been recovered at the scene, and the suspect’s vehicle has been seized.

“It appears the screening process worked as it’s supposed to,” said Verderosa, who has been on the job since March 20 (previously he was the assistant chief).

As The Washington Post reminds us, the Capitol Visitors Center was built in the wake of a 1998 shooting, when a gunman killed two Capitol Police officers (the idea for such a center actually dates back to a 1983 bombing in the Senate, though it took the shooting 15 years later to garner the necessary support). They started building the center in 2000, and completed it in 2008.

A shooting that prompted a lockdown last year was a suicide.