One security officer with the Federal Protective Service was killed, and another injured after shots rang out amid protests in Oakland, California over the death of George Floyd on Friday, authorities said.
San Francisco's office of the FBI said in a statement that an individual inside a vehicle "began firing gunshots at contract security officers for the Federal Protective Service of the Department of Homeland Security."
The FBI, Oakland police and the federal Department of Homeland Security are investigating the shooting, which occurred at 9:45 p.m. at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building, said DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf during a press conference on Saturday.
"Last night in Oakland, California, an assassin cowardly shot two Federal Protective Service contractors as they stood to watch over a protest," Wolf said, while expressing his "deepest condolences" to the families of the contractors.
The Federal Protective Service is used "to prevent, protect, respond to and recover from terrorism, criminal acts, and other hazards threatening the U.S. Government’s critical infrastructure, services, and the people who provide or receive them," according to DHS.
Homeland Security Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said in a press conference "there are currently threats by some to attack police stations and federal buildings. That violence will not be tolerated. We're also committed to ensuring that it won't succeed anywhere, and let me be clear, when someone targets a police officer or a police station with an intention to do harm and intimidate that is an act of domestic terrorism."
Wolf said that while the investigation is still on the early stages, his agency is interested in "any and all groups" that use the George Floyd protests "that could be peaceful" to engage in violence.
