WASHINGTON — A man stabbed a woman and then was shot by a security guard at Washington’s Union Station on Friday, sending people fleeing, some fearful there might be a connection to the 14th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
There wasn’t, the police said. But people still panicked.
`“I saw people running, and I just started running,” said Ursula Lauriston, a 28-year-old magazine editor who was ordering lunch at Jamba Juice, one of dozens of restaurants and shops in the station. “People were completely confused as to what was going on, and no one knew whether to run or hide.”
“Obviously, with this being 9/11, fears were heightened and escalated,” D.C. police Commander Jeff Brown said.
But officials said they believe the incident was the result of a domestic dispute.
The security officer — a private security guard associated with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, whose offices are across the street from Union Station — saw the man stabbing the woman and chased him, police said. The man turned and pointed the knife at the security guard, lunging at him, according to the police.
The guard fired one shot, and the man was wounded in the side, officials said.
Both the man and the woman’s injuries were believed to be non-life-threatening, police said. Their identities haven’t been released.
Union Station — home to Amtrak’s headquarters — is bigger than the nearby U.S. Capitol, and 90,000 people pass through it each day. Flags on the towering poles outside the station’s main entrance were flying at half-staff Friday in remembrance of 9/11.
Lauriston said that once she was outside the station, she felt “that need to capture the moment.” So she snapped a photo of people fleeing and tweeted it.
“I thought it was a terror act just because Union Station would be a prime location for something like that,” she said.
