By Scotty Schenck, photo editor

National Security Agency (NSA) officers killed a man who tried ramming his car into a NSA officer’s vehicle at Fort Meade in Maryland yesterday morning, according to BBC.

NSA police fired at the stolen car, a Ford Escape, which contained two men dressed as women, when it refused to follow orders to stop and drove toward the officer. One man died there, the other was hospitalized. One officer was also injured and subsequently taken to the hospital.

Fort Meade is about 30 miles from Washington and is the headquarters for several intelligence and cyber-security agencies. According to a New York Times article, cocaine and a weapon were found near or inside the vehicle. Officials identified the injured passenger as Kevin Fleming, but did not name the driver.

On Sunday night, the owner of the car, about 60 years old, picked up the two men and drove them to a motel in Maryland. When the owner went to the bathroom the next morning, the two men involved in the incident stole the car. There was no information about how or why the two men ended up at the NSA entrance.

The incident apparently occurred just after 9 a.m., when the car approached an NSA gate. When the driver refused to comply with the police officer’s instructions to leave the site, barriers were deployed. The car then accelerated towards the officer, which was when he or she began to fire at the two men. The car crashed into the NSA police officer’s vehicle.

According to the New York Times, this is not the first occurrence of violence at the agency. Earlier this month, 35-year-old Hony Young was arrested in connected with a series of random shots fired near the NSA building.

“The shooting scene is contained, and we do not believe it is related to terrorism. We are investigating with NSA Police and other law enforcement agencies. Our Evidence Response Team is processing the crime scene, and FBI special agents are doing joint interviews with witnesses. We are working with the US Attorney’s Office in Maryland to determine if federal charges are warranted,” the FBI said in a statement released yesterday.

A Los Angeles Times article said the White House released a statement saying President Barack Obama has been briefed and will be updated as appropriate.

Photo by Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons.