Suspect arrested after vehicle crashes into gate at Atlanta FBI field office

WANF, WXIA, CNN

By Ryan Young, Devon M. Sayers, Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez and John Miller, CNN

Atlanta (CNN) — A suspect was arrested after ramming an entrance gate to the FBI’s Atlanta field office Monday afternoon in an attempt to gain entry to the facility, bureau officials said.

The suspect, who has not been named, got out of the vehicle and was arrested. He is a Navy veteran from South Carolina, according to two law enforcement sources.

The suspect was then taken to a hospital for evaluation and is now in the custody of DeKalb County police, according to a federal law enforcement official. Bomb technicians have cleared the vehicle, the official said.

There were no injuries during the incident, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Peter Ellis told reporters at the scene Monday afternoon.

The suspect was not associated with the facility and was attempting to follow an employee into the front gate, Ellis said.

“He … tried getting into the gate, but our security precautions prevented him from getting in,” Ellis said.

The incident comes about two weeks after the FBI Atlanta field office conducted a tabletop exercise with personnel to test procedures for responding to an unauthorized entry, a law enforcement source who is familiar with the bureau’s security planning told CNN.

And while the motive of Monday’s incident remains unclear, it comes as the FBI has ramped up security in recent years amid a wave of threats to personnel, and following the 2022 attempted breach of an FBI field office in Cincinnati.

The suspect in Monday’s incident did not say anything while being taken into custody, a law enforcement official told CNN.

The FBI said it is opening a case into the incident.

“(At) this time we are looking at both state and federal charges,” Ellis said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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