Man in custody after 'targeted' attack on FBI's Pittsburgh field office
by Chris Benson · UPISept. 17 (UPI) -- A man is in custody after what the FBI described as a "targeted attack" and an "act of terror" after he ran his car into the front of the agency's field office in Pittsburgh.
The suspect, Donald Henson, allegedly weaponized his car to crash the gate of the FBI building after 2:30 a.m. EDT very early Wednesday morning.
"We look at this as an act of terror, against the FBI," according to Special Agent in Charge Christopher Giordano.
"This was a targeted attack on this building," he added. "Thankfully, no one was hurt."
Hanson, of nearby Penn Hills, reportedly left the scene on foot after the crash.
"He got out and went around the passenger side and pulled something out of the passenger side," Nakeisha Brown, a local worker, told WTAE in Pittsburgh.
"I thought it was a gun but it happened to be a flag and he just set it on that fence and started yelling out some words and just took off," she said.
According to FBI officials, Hanson recently visited the FBI field office and likely is a former U.S. military member with a history of mental illness.
"In scouring our indexes, we did find that he visited the field office a couple of weeks ago to make a complaint that didn't make a whole lot of sense," stated Giordano.
Giordano said FBI officials "ran down everything" Hansom claimed but "didn't have a federal nexus" to it.
He said Hansom was later contacted by authorities to "let him know there wasn't a federal offense that we were able to charge."