Census Gun Suspect Was Due in Court on Birthday

Ronald Anderson was charged in February with beating his girlfriend
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 10, 2015 4:00 PM CDT
Census Gun Suspect Was Due in Court on Birthday
This handout photo shows Ronald Anderson.   (AP Photo/Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office)

The complicated story is filling in around yesterday's kidnapping-shooting at the Census Bureau in DC that left a security guard dead. The shooter has been identified as Ronald Anderson, and police say the woman he kidnapped was his girlfriend. Two months ago, Anderson was charged with assault for allegedly beating her, and he had been due in court today—his 48th birthday—for a hearing on the case. Yesterday afternoon, however, authorities say he forced her into his car at gunpoint, then drove to the Census Bureau for unknown reasons, reports the Washington Post. Security guard Lawrence Buckner, 59, heard them arguing, approached the car, and was fatally shot.

Anderson then dropped off his girlfriend unharmed at some point before leading police on a chase that included an exchange of gunfire and Anderson crashing his vehicle. He remains hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds, reports WUSA9. A police officer is recuperating from a gunshot wound to the leg. The AP, meanwhile, has details from the assault charges in February, citing the responding officer's report: "The victim was shaking, crying and was whispering while speaking because she was afraid of the suspect hearing her." Anderson's girlfriend told the officer that he had hit her several times after accusing her of looking at another man. In 1991, Anderson pleaded guilty to manslaughter while armed, but no details were available about that case, reports AP. (More Census Bureau stories.)

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