Shots Fired at the Capitol: Congressman Cartwright Speaks (VIDEO)

CNBC speaks with Congressman Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania about the shooting at the U.S. Capitol Building today.

“Congressman Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania is joining us now on the phone. Sir, thank you very much for joining us. Can you quickly tell us where you are, what you heard and what your thoughts are on what is exactly happening? Right. Well, we had just finished the first series of votes in the house. There is a balcony on the south side of the second floor of the capitol. That is right off of the speakers lobby. It’s a place where members of congress can go and sit and chat and I was doing just that with Congressman Jerry Connolly from North Virginia. We were having a quiet chat when all of the sudden it was — oh, I would say on the order of seven or eight rapid fire gunshots that went off. And I did — it did sound like gunshots. To me, it sounded like kind of the first of a 21 gun salute where they shoot off seven guns except it was more ragged than that. They were not all at once. That’s what it put me in mind of at first. I also thought if you’ve ever heard guns going off, I don’t consider myself a ballistics expert, but it was clearly not a .22 which makes it sound like a pop. This was more like booms. This was a high powered ammunition in my estimation.”

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Shots Fired at the Capitol: CNBC Speaks with Congressman Cartwright