Kevin Williams and Mitch Smith
Authorities said they shot and killed the suspect after hours of negotiations.
WILMINGTON, Ohio — After a lengthy standoff, police officers shot and killed an armed man accused of trying to break into the F.B.I.’s Cincinnati office on Thursday, officials in Ohio said, but the motives of the man remained unclear.
Investigators are looking into whether the man had ties to extremist groups, including one that participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the matter.
The attack in Cincinnati came three days after F.B.I. agents served a search warrant at the Florida home of former President Donald J. Trump, and a day after the F.B.I. director told reporters that online threats against federal law enforcement were “deplorable and dangerous.” There was no immediate indication that the incident in Ohio was related to the Trump search.
The man, whom officials said was wearing body armor, tried to breach the entrance to the visitor screening facility outside the F.B.I. Cincinnati Field Office in the suburb of Kenwood around 9 a.m., said Todd Lindgren, an agency spokesman. He said an alarm was set off and agents responded.
After fleeing, the man headed north on Interstate 71, officials said, where he was spotted about 20 minutes later by a state trooper at a rest area. That trooper began a chase and came under gunfire, said Lt. Nathan Dennis of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
The chase eventually left the interstate and snaked along rural roads before coming to a stop near an Interstate 71 overpass close to the city of Wilmington. Lieutenant Dennis said gunfire was exchanged. Roads were blocked off for several hours but had reopened by late afternoon.
Lieutenant Dennis said law enforcement officers attempted to negotiate with the suspect for several hours, and then tried to take him into custody with “less-than-lethal tactics.” Those efforts failed, he said, and officers fatally shot him after he raised a gun.
Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman
Man suspected of trying to breach the F.B.I.’s Cincinnati office may have Jan. 6 ties.
Investigators are looking into whether the man who tried to breach the F.B.I.’s field office in Cincinnati on Thursday had ties to extremist groups, including one that participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the matter.
The suspect, identified by the officials as Ricky Shiffer, 42, seems to have appeared in a video posted on Facebook on Jan. 5, 2021, showing him attending a pro-Trump rally at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington the night before the Capitol was stormed.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/08/11 ... oting-news