Manassas Woman Suspect in Walter Reed Incident

Updated 4:20 p.m.

Police said a Manassas woman is the suspect in a Tuesday afternoon incident in which a Navy official fired a gun outside of Walter Reed National Miltary Medical Center.

Police said Angela Akosua Cobbold, 27, rammed police and security vehicles with her car after a car chase from Virginia, then lead police on a second chase down Rockville Pike. 

Investigators haven't yet released the charges she faces.

The suspect is in custody and is being evaluated at a hospital after leading police on a chase from Walter Reed that culminated in a crash on Nebel Street in Rockville near Harris Teeter. A Navy official fired a gun during the incident, after Cobbold attempted to use her vehicle to hit security vehicles, police said.

Many of the neighbors living in the suspect's townhouse community off Ashton Avenue in Prince William County said they didn't know her.

Neighbors that did said she was very nice and shared her home with at least two other people, possibly realtives.

The incident at Walter Reed began in Virginia around 11:25 a.m. when Cobbold was clocked going 90 mph, according to Montgomery County police spokesman Capt. Paul Starks.

Virginia police tried to pursue Cobbold, stopping at the Maryland state line where Virginia officials then contacted Maryland State Police and the Montgomery County Police Department for assistance. Maryland and Montgomery County officials were on the look out for Kobbold's black Mitsubishi when the incident at Walter Reed was first reported, Starks said. 

Cobbold never actually made it onto the military base, where shots were first reported, according to Starks.

From Rockville Pike, Cobbold attempted to make a U-turn at the northern gate of the base when she collided with another passenger vehicle, said police.

Security officers attempted but were unable to make contact with Cobbold, who was seen eating a bar of soap. She then reportedly took off in the southbound lanes of Rockville Pike, making another U-turn and heading back to the military gate, police said.

A civilian Navy security officer then used a baton to break the windows of her car, police said, and the officer suffered non-life threatening injuries. It was first reported that the officer may have been injured while inside of a security vehicle. 

Cobbold reportedly then backed into a patrol car with her car, drove over the curb and onto the grass in front of the base, police said. At that point a Navy security officer discharged his weapon, police said. Cobbold then drove north on the southbound lanes of Rockville Pike, turning onto Cedar Lane and then onto Old Georgetown Road. She traveled to Nebel Street where she crashed into a fence near a construction site next to the Harris Teeter, police said.

At that point she was taken into custody. No charges have been filed.

Cobbold, of the 7800 block of Blue Gray Circle in Manassas, was being evaluated at a hospital.

*Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect a corrected spelling of the suspect's name. Montgomery County police initially gave reporters an incorrect spelling.

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Update 1:58 pm

A civilian Navy security officer fired a gun in an incident at the gate of Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda Tuesday after a woman involved in a car accident attempted to use her vehicle to a security vehicle, police said. A security officer was injured.

Just before noon, a woman driving a single passenger vehicle struck another vehicle while both were leaving the northern gate of the facility at Rockville Pike and Cedar Lane, according to Naval Support Activity Bethesda spokesman Joe Macri.

When Navy security officers attempted to intervene, the woman attempted to use her car to strike one of the officers, he said. A Navy officer fired a gun, but it was unknown if anyone was hit, Macri said.

The woman then struck a another patrol car with an officer inside, he said. The officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries and has been transported to a hospital. The suspect fled and Montgomery County police pursued her to Nebel Street in Rockville, where she was taken into custody, police said.

Northbound Rockville Pike was shut down this afternoon, according to police.

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Earlier story

A shot was fired Tuesday near Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at the intersection of Rockville Pike and Cedar Lane in Bethesda, according to police, and a woman was in custody. No injuries were reported.

"There was one shot fired," confirmed Joe Macri, spokesman for Walter Reed.

Police said they have a woman in custody after locating a car suspected in the incident, according to Montgomery County police spokesperson Angela Cruz.

Cruz advised drivers to avoid traffic in the Rockville Pike area around Walter Reed, as well as Nebel Street in Rockville, where she said a suspect vehicle was located. 

Police and fire and rescue officials were on the scene conducting an investigation.

No further details were available.

Manassas Patch editor Jamie Rogers contributed to this report.