警方称，周日清晨，一名男子驾车撞上国会大厦的安全路障后饮弹自尽。
美国国会大厦警方在一份最初的简短声明中表示，一名男子在凌晨4点左右撞车后走出汽车，之后汽车“被火焰吞没”
警方称，该男子随后“向空中开了几枪”，并在警察靠近时开枪自杀。
“他们听到了枪声，国会警察正在回应。警长汤姆·曼格周日晚些时候对记者说:“当(该男子)刚刚进入国会大厦的东大门时，我们的一名警官看到他用枪指着自己的头，然后开枪自杀。”。“我们的警察在确认他不构成威胁后，接近了他。事实上，他已经死了。”
周日下午晚些时候，警方确认这名男子是29岁的理查德·a·约克三世，来自特拉华州，并表示已经通知了他的近亲。
警方当时表示，他的动机尚不清楚。
警方在第一份声明中说，事件中没有其他人受伤，约克似乎没有针对正在休会的国会议员。
“警察似乎没有开枪，”警方说。
当局称，对约克背景的调查正在进行中。华盛顿警方正在“处理死亡调查”在另一份声明中，华盛顿警方证实了这一点，但表示他们“没有关于死者身份或动机的进一步细节”。
A tow truck removes a car that crashed into a Capitol barricade in Washington, Aug. 14, 2022.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Manger在周日的新闻发布会上说，目前还不清楚这一事件是否是精神健康突发事件的结果。
“非常初步的检查没有在社交媒体上发现任何东西，”他说，并补充说，“调查的一部分是我们与这个人的家人和朋友交谈，看看我们是否能从他们那里获得更多信息。”
Manger说，在此事件之前，国会警察并不知道York。
“我们确实知道这个人在过去10年左右有犯罪史，”他说。"但是，在这一点上，没有什么能把他和国会大厦联系起来."
这起事件发生在执法部门所谓的对政治暴力的高度关注在过去两年国会大厦恐怖袭击的阴影下。
2021年4月，一名国会警察在一次汽车冲撞袭击中丧生，就在几个月前，一群暴力暴徒洗劫了这座建筑，并让立法者暂时躲藏起来。
几名警察在那次暴乱后死亡，包括一些自杀者。
Man kills himself after ramming car into Capitol barricade, police say
A man fatally shot himself after ramming his car into a security barricade at the Capitol early Sunday morning, police said.
U.S. Capitol Police said in an initial, brief statement that a man exited his vehicle after crashing it around 4 a.m., after which the vehicle "became engulfed in flames."
The man then "fired several shots into the air" and shot himself as officers approached, police said.
"They had heard the gunshots, and Capitol police officers were responding. As [the man] got just onto the East Front of the Capitol property, one of our officers observed him to put the gun to his head and shoot himself," Chief Tom Manger told reporters later Sunday. "Our officers then made sure that he was not a threat and then approached him. And, in fact, he was deceased."
Late Sunday afternoon, police identified the man as 29-year old Richard A. York III, of Delaware, and said his next of kin had been notified.
His motive remained unclear, police said then.
Nobody else was injured in the incident and York did not seem to be targeting members of Congress, which is in recess, the police said in their first statement.
"[I]t does not appear officers fired their weapons," police said.
An investigation was underway into York's background, according to authorities. D.C. police are "handling the death investigation." In a separate statement D.C. police confirmed this but said they had "no further details on the identification of the decedent or motive" no share.
Manger said in Sunday's press conference that it was unclear if the incident was the result of a mental health emergency.
"A very preliminary check didn't reveal anything on social media," he said, adding, "Part of the investigation is we talk to this individual's family and friends to see, perhaps, if we can get more information from them."
York was not known to Capitol Police prior to this incident, Manger said.
"We do know that the subject has a criminal history over the past 10 years or so," he said. "But nothing that, at this point, would link him to anything here at the Capitol."
The incident comes amid what law enforcement has calledheightened concerns of political violence-- and in the shadow of alarming attacks at the Capitol in the past two years.
A Capitol Police officer was killed in a car-ramming attack in April 2021 just months after the deadly insurrection in which a violent mob ransacked the building and sent lawmakers temporarily into hiding.
Several officers died following that riot, including some from suicide.
