President Obama responded to the shooting at the Family Research Council via a statement from his press secretary at the top of yesterday’s regular briefing with reporters.
Press secretary Jay Carney said that Obama, on the campaign trail in Iowa, was notified of the shooting at 1:18 p.m. Eastern time by his homeland security adviser, John Brennan. Brennan was also Obama’s key adviser in the recent Aurora, Colo., and Wisconsin Sikh temple shootings, though only one of those has been deemed domestic terrorism.
“I spoke to the president following his being briefed by Mr. Brennan on this and the president expressed his concern for the individual injured in the shooting and his strong belief that this type of violence has no place in our society,” Carney said.
“As you know, there is an ongoing investigation so there is not much more I can say about this specific incident,” he added. “For additional questions, I would refer you, of course, to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and to the FBI.”
One security guard was shot in the arm while wrestling the gun away from the shooter at FRC headquarters. Taken into custody was 28-year-old Floyd Lee Corkins II of Herndon, Va., who reportedly took the Metro into downtown with a recently purchased 9mm handgun and two loaded magazines in his backpack — along with Chick-fil-A sandwiches, law enforcement sources told the Associated Press. He had volunteered at the front-desk reception at an LGBT community center in northwest Washington for about the past six months.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member