Armed Intruder Breaches Military Base Shortly After Kamala Harris' Arrival

By Abby Liebing March 7, 2022 at 8:18am

Shortly after Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Sunday, two intruders, at least one of them armed, reportedly also arrived at the base.

One suspect was arrested, but the other one remains at large, CNN reported.

The two drove a stolen vehicle through a security checkpoint at the main gate of the base about 9 p.m., WJLA-TV reported.

The security at the base immediately deployed barriers to stop the vehicle. The two individuals fled the vehicle and while one was arrested, the other escaped, WJLA reported.

The one arrested was a 17-year-old carrying a firearm, The Washington Post reported, noted that that the second individual remained at large. There were no shots fired during the incident.

Officials from the base confirmed that after a “full sweep” of the base, the other intruder who was “on the loose had departed” from the base, the Post reported.

Harris and several other cabinet members had returned to the base after a trip to Selma, Alabama. They were in Alabama to commemorate the 57th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” which occurred in 1965 when police attacked civil rights marchers on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The vice president arrived at the base at 8:47 p.m. on Air Force Two. The two intruders arrived shortly after, CNN reported.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, and Michael Regan, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, were with Harris for the trip.

All were safely gotten off of the base, WJLA News reported.

DEVELOPING: Joint Base Andrews on lockdown due to an “armed individual” per pool report. @VP departed safely while a White House official tells media the 4 cabinet secretaries who were traveling with VP Harris are safely off-base. (Fudge, Cardona, Buttigieg, and Regan.)

— Scott Thuman (@ScottThuman) March 7, 2022

Harris departed on Marine Two before the report was even made public, The Washington Post reported.

One person was apprehended Sunday and a search continues for a second intruder at the military base in Maryland. https://t.co/EMwrxYEioD

— WQAD (@wqad) March 7, 2022

The situation was not treated as an active shooter threat and the motive of the intruders has not been made public.

“There is not an active shooter situation at Joint Base Andrews; however, the intruder’s whereabouts are currently unknown,” the base told WJLA News.

The incident is still under investigation, The Washington Post reported.

Do you think the intruders were there to harm the vice president?

It appeared to be one of the most serious security incidents in memory at Andrews base. The base is a few miles outside of Washington in Prince George’s County.

Col. Tyler Schaff, the commander of Join Base Andrews, commended the responders who raised the barriers when the vehicle breached security at the first checkpoint and prevented the incursion from getting worse.

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