A police officer and police canine inspect vehicles in a parking lot outside the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, September 16, after a shooting at the complex. Multiple people were killed in the shooting rampage, according to Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier.
Washington (CNN) -- Twelve people were killed Monday after at least one shooter opened fire in a rampage at a Navy yard in the nation's capital, putting government buildings on lockdown and sending police SWAT teams rushing to the scene.
One suspect is dead, but two other gunmen may be on the loose, Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.
"Right now we have multiple pieces of information to suggest that we had at least two other people seen with firearms. ... These are people that we believe are involved in some way," Lanier said. She declined to provide specifics about why authorities believe they were involved.
Authorities are looking for a white man and a black man in military-style clothing who could be connected to the shooting. A dozen people are confirmed dead after the shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, Lanier said, and others are injured.
Who opened fire at the headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command -- and why -- remains unclear.
"We still don't know all the facts. But we do know that several people have been shot and some have been killed," President Barack Obama said earlier Monday afternoon. "So we are confronting yet another mass shooting. And today it happened on a military installation in our nation's capital."
Obama called the shooting a "cowardly act" that targeted military and civilians serving their country. "They know the dangers of serving abroad," he said, "but today they faced the unimaginable violence that we wouldn't have expected here at home."
Earlier, authorities said a gunman dressed in all black had fired shots inside the Navy yard, injuring at least 10 people. The violence started unfolding at 8:20 a.m. when several shots were fired inside the headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command in southeast Washington.
Two witnesses told CNN affiliate WJLA-TV that they heard a fire alarm go off in the building where they worked, then saw a man with a rifle down the hallway as they exited the building.
"He aimed the gun and fired our way," a man who identified himself as Todd Brundidge told WJLA, adding, "I couldn't believe it." People frantically tried to run out of the building, Brundidge said.
"Everyone was going down the stairs. They were pushing. They were shoving. People were falling down," he told WJLA. "As we came outside, people were climbing the wall trying to get over the wall to get out. .... It was just crazy."
The injured included a Washington police officer who has been hospitalized, and a base security guard officer, said Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Saray Leon.
Three people, including the D.C. police officer, were admitted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center with multiple gunshot wounds. They are expected to survive, chief medical officer Janis Orlowski told reporters.
One person was pronounced dead at George Washington University Hospital, according to Dr. Babak Sarani, chief of trauma and acute care there.
Meanwhile, at the Navy yard, helicopters hovered overhead. In one chopper, there appeared to be a police sniper peering out, with a scope at the ready.
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