Heightened security was in place for the trial of a Pakistani man accused in the shooting spree outside the gates of the Central Intelligence Agency more than four years ago.
Concrete barriers were in place around the Fairfax County Courthouse, specifically for the trial of Mir Aimal Kasi. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday for a trial expected to last two weeks.Kasi, 33, is charged with capital murder following the slayings of two CIA employees in an attack that injured three others on Jan. 25, 1993. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
Pretrial hearings also have been held under tight security, with snipers on the courthouse roof and additional metal detectors outside the courtroom.
Kasi left the United States immediately after the shootings and hid for more than four years. FBI agents arrested him in June in a hotel room in Pakistan.
The FBI agent who led the hunt for Kasi testified at a hearing last month that Kasi discussed the shootings at length on the flight back to Virginia and signed a statement describing his involvement.
Kasi told the FBI he shot into cars in morning traffic outside the CIA's Langley headquarters "to teach a lesson to the United States government by teaching that lesson to the CIA," Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Horan Jr. said at a hearing last week.