An NSA police officer opened fire Monday morning when two men dressed as women and driving a stolen car tried to ram through the gates at Fort Meade — and one suspect was killed, sources said.
After trying to make an "unathorized entry," the driver of the Ford Escape ignored the guard's order to leave the area, NSA spokesman Jonathan Freed said in a statement.
"The vehicle accelerated toward an NSA Police vehicle blocking the road. NSA Police fired at the vehicle when it refused to stop. The unauthorized vehicle crashed into the NSA Police vehicle."
One man died at the scene; the cause of death has not been determined. The other was hospitalized with unknown injuries, and the NSA police officer was also hurt.
Howard County police said the vehicle had been stolen from a hotel off Route 1 in Jessup, Maryland, before the shooting, but could provide no other details.
The FBI was leading the investigation.
"The shooting scene is contained and we do not believe it is related to terrorism," the FBI's Baltimore office said in a statement. "We are working with the US Attorney's Office in Maryland to determine if federal charges are warranted."
It's not clear why the men were trying to enter the facility, but one senior U.S. official called it a "local criminal matter."
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said President Obama was briefed on the incident.
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NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski and Oliver Cox contributed to this report.
Richard Esposito is the senior executive producer of the NBC News Investigative Unit, and supervises investigative correspondents, producers, and reporters across all broadcasts and platforms of the NBCUniversal News Group.
Esposito, who began as a copy boy at the New York Daily News in 1977, has more than 25 years of newspaper and television experience. He has overseen investigations and run the metropolitan news operations at two of the largest newspapers in America, the New York Daily News and Newsday, and was most recently senior investigative reporter for ABC News.
He has shared in Peabody and Pulitzer awards, and has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer. Honors include the 2012 Murrow Award for his work in reporting the death of Osama bin Laden, a 2005 Polk Award for his investigation into the CIA’s network of secret prisons and harsh interrogation techniques, a 2006 Emmy Award and a 1990 Sigma Delta Chi award, among many other awards.
Esposito is the co-author of the books “Bomb Squad: A Year Inside the Nation’s Most Exclusive Police Unit,” and “Dead on Delivery: Inside the Drug Wars.”
Tracy Connor is a senior writer for NBC News. She started this role in December, 2012. Connor is responsible for reporting and writing breaking news, features and enterprise stories for NBCNews.com. Connor joined NBC News from the New York Daily News, where she was a senior writer covering a broad range of news and supervising the health and immigration beats. Prior to that she was an assistant city editor who oversaw breaking news and the courts and entertainment beats.
Earlier, Connor was a staff writer at the New York Post, United Press International and Brooklyn Paper Publications.
Connor has won numerous awards from journalism organizations including the Deadline Club and the New York Press Club.
She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
