In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the quiet of Pittsburgh’s FBI field office was shattered when a man deliberately rammed his car into the facility’s security gate. Authorities wasted no time labeling it for what it was: an act of terror against a federal law enforcement agency.
The suspect, Donald Henson of Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, crashed his white Toyota sedan into the reinforced gate at around 2:40 a.m., then exited the vehicle carrying not a weapon but an American flag.
In a bizarre display, he hurled the flag over the gate, shouted incoherently, and fled on foot. His actions bent the gate, triggered a rapid response, and set off hours of tension until FBI agents confirmed his arrest later that morning. No agents were injured in the incident.
“We look at this as an act of terror against the FBI,” Special Agent in Charge Christopher Giordano told reporters. “This was a targeted attack on this building.”
The motive is still murky, but initial signs suggest Henson may have been grappling with mental health issues. He had visited the field office just weeks earlier, demanding to file a complaint that agents later determined had “no federal nexus.” According to Giordano, the FBI followed up, investigated his claims, and concluded there was no crime to pursue.
That interaction, apparently, was not the end of it. Henson returned in the dead of night, using his car as a weapon against the very institution he felt had ignored him. Federal prosecutors have already signaled they will pursue charges to the “fullest extent.”
Eyewitness accounts highlight the strangeness of the episode. Nakeisha Brown, who works near the FBI building, told WTAE she first heard the screech of tires, then saw the sedan lodged against the gate, its hazard lights flashing.
A man got out, reached into the car’s passenger side, and pulled out what she thought was a gun. Instead, it was a flag. “He just set it on that fence and started yelling out some words and just took off,” she said.
Photographs from the scene show the sedan with its driver’s side door open, hazards blinking, and the heavy gate visibly dented. For all its oddities, the symbolism of an attack against a federal building—especially the FBI—cannot be understated. It was a breach designed to send a message, even if that message remains incoherent.
