WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Police arrested a suspect early on Thursday morning after reports of gunfire at Cuba’s embassy in the United States, the Secret Service and Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department said.
No injuries were reported, the Secret Service said.
Officers arrived at the scene at around 2 a.m. (0600 GMT), where they found the suspect with an assault-style rifle, the MPD said.
The initial investigation indicated that the suspect, Alexander Alazo, 42, was “shooting toward a foreign embassy on the block,” a spokeswoman for MPD said.
Authorities arrested Alazo who has been charged with assault with intent to kill, MPD said.
“One individual was arrested for being in possession of an unregistered firearm as well as unregistered ammunition, assault with the intent to kill, and possession of a high capacity feed device,” a Secret Service spokeswoman said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear what motivated the shooting.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla wrote in a post on Twitter that the embassy had been “the target of armed attack,” adding that countries bear responsibility to protect diplomats and their facilities.
(Reporting by Makini Brice in Washington; Additional reporting by Sarah Marsh in Havana; Editing by Alistair Bell)
