UPDATE 5:27 p.m. EDT: Ex-Wheeling police officer Thomas Picard has been identified as the federal building shooter, according to WV Metro News. Authorities told the news outlet that Picard died at a local hospital.

UPDATE 4:58 p.m. EDT: While the name of the gunman has not yet been released, the Wheeling News-Register reports that the shooter was a former Wheeling police officer.

UPDATE 4:53 p.m. EDT: The Associated Press is reporting that security guards at the federal building returned fire on the shooter. A motive is still unknown and the gunman has not yet been identified.

UPDATE 4:44 p.m. EDT: The gunman in the Wheeling Federal Building has died, according to the News-Register and WKKX.

A gunman is in custody after shots were fired Wednesday afternoon near the Wheeling Federal Building in West Virginia.

The shooter may also have been aiming at a nearby YWCA building, the Wheeling News-Register reported.

Television station WTOV, which covers Wheeling, reported that the gunman was in custody. Witnesses told the station that about 20 shots were fired during the incident. The federal building was put on lockdown at 3:15 p.m.

Carla Webb Daniels, a Wheeling resident and witness to the shooting, said the shooter took aim from the Chase Bank parking lot across the street from the Wheeling Federal Building. She was in her attorney’s office when she heard the shots, she told the News-Register.

"I was so nervous, I couldn't believe it," she said. "People were scared and were banging on the doors asking to be let in."

Daniels described the gunman was a white man with an assault rifle standing between two vehicles in the parking lot. After firing toward the Wheeling Federal Building, the shooter reloaded and took aim at the YWCA building, she said.