Woman Is Shot to Death During Storming of U.S. Capitol

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Demonstrators breach a door of
Demonstrators breach a door of the U.S. Capitol as a joint session of Congress to count the votes of the 2020 presidential election takes place in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. The U.S. Capitol was placed under lockdown and Vice President Mike Pence left the floor of Congress as hundreds of protesters swarmed past barricades surrounding the building where lawmakers were debating Joe Biden's victory in the Electoral College.

(Bloomberg) -- The violence at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday included the fatal shooting of a woman, according to the District of Columbia police.

A police spokesman, Alaina Gertz, provided no further details, including who shot the victim or if anyone had been arrested in the episode.

After the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon was overrun by supporters of President Donald Trump, police were seen providing aid to a bloodied woman lying on the floor inside the building. It not immediately clear if that was the woman who was shot.

The violence occurred after the mob disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory by both houses of Congress, forcing lawmakers and their staffs to flee.

The violent death was the first at the Capitol since 1998 when a gunman forced his way through metal detectors as alarms sounded and shot to death two Capitol police officers before he was wounded and taken into custody.

In 1954, according to a House history, four people associated with the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party opened fire from a gallery over the House floor, wounding five congressmen.

Three of the attackers were quickly subdued and a fourth was arrested later. President Jimmy Carter commuted their sentences in 1979.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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