Immigrants who witnessed a traffic stop Wednesday by U.S. Park Police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers panicked and tried to flee onto the CIA’s compound, attempting to scale fences around the spy agency’s headquarters.
On the George Washington Parkway, which runs in front of the CIA’s entrance in northern Virginia, U.S. Park Police, supported by ICE, had stopped a car and approached the driver’s side of the car, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.
“The driver refused to turn off the car and sped off nearly hitting Park Police and ICE officers,” DHS said. “U.S. Park Police and ICE pursued the vehicle, until the driver jumped the median traveling south on northbound lanes of the parkway, jeopardizing the safety of officers and the public,” DHS said.
The three people in the car fled on foot and officers apprehended one of them, DHS said.
During the traffic stop, a second car approached and “the occupants panicked at the sight of law enforcement presence and fled onto CIA property,” the statement said.
Officers apprehended three of the four immigrants in the second car. One of them had been removed from the United States twice, according to DHS.
Initially, CIA employees thought there had been a raid at a nearby building site, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
ICE officers did not inform the CIA of the raid in advance, and the incident caused a traffic jam outside its complex in Langley, Virginia, during the morning commute, the source said.
The New York Times first reported the incident.
A CIA spokesperson said by email that law enforcement responded to a security incident at the agency complex but did not offer more details.
As a precaution, the CIA temporarily shut down access to the agency to check whether the perimeter of the campus was secure. The people who tried to scale the fences did not breach headquarters security or pose any threat, the source said.
