WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Officials said that parts of Fort Totten Park and the Fort Totten Metro station were closed on Tuesday after police were called about a suspicious package.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said that they received a call around 4:52 p.m. about a suspicious package on Fort Totten Drive and Farragut Street.
The National Park Service (NPS) said that one of its employees found “two metal canisters in a mound of soil in Fort Totten Park.”
NPS said that the Army was going to analyze the canisters and anything that might be in them at Marine Corps Base Quantico. Officials were working to determine where the canisters and mounds of soil came from as well as what steps to take next.
Metro said that trains were bypassing the Fort Totten station. They established a shuttle bus alongside normal Metrobus service during this time.
Police were still at the scene investigating at 8 p.m. They asked everyone to avoid the area.
NPS said that it had previously found an empty metal canister in a different part of Fort Totten Park in July 2020 while working on the Fort Totten Trail.
Officials said that they were concerned that the canister, which was WWI-era, could have been an unexploded ordnance. Responders removed the canister, and the Department of Defense inspected it.
DOD’s investigation revealed that the canister was an “unfused and unused, empty canister” and safely disposed of it. NPS said that they still did not know where it came from.
No other canisters were found that year.
Source: dcnewsnow
