WASHINGTON, May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Texas man accused of opening fire outside the Cuban Embassy in Washington early Thursday morning was arrested and charged with assault with intent to kill, the authorities said, reporting damage to the building but no injuries.
The police and Secret Service officers were called to the scene at about 2:10 a.m., after receiving reports of gunfire by the embassy, the police said.
There, officers found a man with an “assault-style rifle,” said Brianna Jordan, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police Department. He was “taken into custody without incident,” she said.
She identified the man as Alexander Alazo, 42, of Aubrey, Texas, and said he had been charged with assault with intent to kill.
“Our initial investigation indicates that the subject was shooting toward a foreign embassy building,” Jordan said, adding that both the police and the Secret Service were investigating the incident.
No staff members were injured in the incident, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, and the Secret Service said no injuries were reported at the scene.
But the ministry said that bullets had caused “material damage” to the building, which stands in an expensive area near luxury apartments, about three miles from the National Mall.
The ministry also said that “an assault weapon” was used, but that Cuban officials had no information about the identity of the person who fired the gun. On Twitter, the ministry posted photos of a shattered lamp and a wall and columns pocked by bullets.
“The government of Cuba is waiting for the correspondent investigation by U.S. authorities on the identity and motives of the individual who carried out this aggression and the circumstances surrounding the event,” the ministry said.
Cuba’s diplomatic mission has security in place “to face threats against its staff and its premises,” the statement said. It also said that host nations had an obligation “to adopt appropriate steps to protect the premises of diplomatic missions accredited to their country” against intrusions or damage.
The United States formally re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba in 2015 under the Obama administration. At the time, President Barack Obama had declared that the two nations were ready to reopen embassies in each others’s capitals and start a “new chapter” of engagement after more than 50 years of estrangement.
The embassy openings were the culmination of months of negotiations to overcome decades of enmity.
In recent years, there have been several incidents at embassies and consulates on American soil. In 2014, a fire was set at the main entrance of Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco, causing significant damage to the doors and charring part of the exterior.
And in 2019, a group of American activists moved into the five-story Venezuelan Embassy in Washington to demonstrate against potential U.S. military intervention. — NNN-AGENCIES
