As I'm sure most of you had heard, there was an incident this afternoon on Capitol Hill. Apparently, a women in an Infiniti coup with a child in the car bumped or ran into a White House barricade of some sort. After this, there was a chase that led to the Capitol Hill area (where I both work and live) and shots were fired.
I was in the congressional office where I intern at the time and we were all told to lock the doors and stay away from windows as shots were fired from either inside or immediately outside the Capitol. During the lockdown, we didn't have all the details and from all we knew there was a gunman on the loose around the Capitol complex - the reason for the lockdown.
On my walk home, many streets were blocked off and interrupted my normal route home. There were many reporters and TV stations surrounding the area and it turns out, the chase concluded only 2 blocks from our house. A student living here said she could hear the shots from the apartment.
Between the Syria debate in Congress, the Navy Yard shooting a few weeks ago, the government shutdown that we are still dealing with, and the event this afternoon, it has proved to be a very interesting time in Washington.
Despite the shutdown, because I am an unpaid intern, I still go into the office. This ends up working well for me because not only do I maintain my internship credit hours, I am able to see a lot of the happenings in Congress right now firsthand - despite the ridiculous inability to compromise.
With the debt ceiling issue coming up fast as well, I am wondering whether or not I am bad luck to Washington... the jury is still out on that one.
Regardless of the very unfortunate circumstances in the Capitol lately, I am glad I am able to be here during such a historic - albeit controversial - time.
