Capitol police say suspect killed near Capitol

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Capitol Police said one suspect was killed and two officers injured in a shooting near the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday in an incident police said was not related to Capitol security.

Police briefly closed a road adjacent to the Senate side of the complex, home to the U.S. Congress, and entrances to the Capitol building were temporarily locked on its North side.

The shooting occurred after a Capitol police officer tried to make a routine traffic stop near Union Station, a police spokeswoman said. Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said the driver fled, nearly ran over two officers, struck a parked and then crashed into a police cruiser.

"The subject disregarded repeated demands by police officers to put down the weapon that the suspect had. He began shooting a weapon at several U.S. Capitol Police officers. U.S. Capitol Police returned fire, hitting the suspect," Schneider said in statement.

Schneider said the suspect, who was not identified, had died. She said the shooting was an isolated incident and no one else was involved.

Robert Drumm, visiting Washington from Edmond, Oklahoma said he was walking near the Capitol when he saw police cars engaged in a high speech chase with a white Mercedes.

There was a crash and then "boom, boom, boom, boom. A pause and then a bunch more," Drumm added, estimating he heard more than a dozen gunshots.

The incident was the second shooting in just over a month near a popular tourist attraction in Washington.

On June 10, an elderly gunman linked to an anti-Jewish website shot and killed a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, a short distance from the Capitol.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Joanne Allen; editing by David Storey)