No Sign of Shooting at Navy Yard

Investigators found no evidence of a shooting after the Washington Navy Yard went on lockdown today because someone reported shots fired in the same building where a gunman killed 12 workers in a rampage two years ago. DC police said in a statement that someone called from inside a Navy Yard building to report possible sounds of gunshots around 7:30am. However, investigators found no sign of a shooting, and no one was hurt. The alert about a potential shooter triggered a large response in keeping with protocols established after the 2013 massacre: A heavy police and fire department presence began blocks away from the Navy Yard; the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene; gates to the Navy Yard were closed; and all people were advised to shelter in place.

A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity says Navy security saw surveillance video of two people jumping the fence in the vicinity of the building a couple of minutes before the first report of gunfire. Security found no one inside the building. In September 2013, military contractor Aaron Alexis killed 12 civilian workers at the Navy Yard's Building 197 before he was fatally shot by police. The building has since been renamed the Joshua Humphreys Building; it reopened this year. The Navy Yard, in southeast Washington, DC, is the country's oldest naval installation. (More US Navy Yard stories.)