The man shot near the White House was believed to be suicidal, the Secret Service said
The US Secret Service has shot an armed man
directly outside the White House grounds, the agency has announced.
An “armed confrontation” took place directly
outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House’s West Wing
shortly after midnight.
President Donald Trump was not in the White
House at the time of the shooting, having decided to spend the weekend at his
home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Earlier in the day, local police reported a
“suicidal individual” who may have been traveling to Washington, D.C., from
Indiana to the Secret Service, the agency added.
Secret Service agents saw the man’s vehicle
parked near 17th and F streets, NW, before they spotted an individual matching
police’s description nearby. An armed
encounter followed near 17th and G Streets, a spokesperson for the agency said.
The man was taken to the hospital. His condition was not immediately known.
Map of the White House
armed encounter
US Secret Service agents spotted the vehicle
belonging to the individual at 17th and F Streets, NW, before an "armed
encounter" with the man at 17th and G Streets, NW. The man was taken to hospital, but his
condition is unknown.
“As officers approached, the individual
brandished a firearm, and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots
were fired by our personnel,” Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi
said on X (Twitter).
No Secret Service personnel were injured in
the incident, which is now under investigation by the DC Metropolitan Police
Department.
Mr Guglielmi said on X: “Secret Service
personnel were involved in a shooting following an armed encounter with a
person of interest shortly after midnight on March 9 at 17th and G Streets NW. The media staging area will be at 17th and
Pennsylvania.”
Washington’s Metropolitan Police said
investigators from its internal affairs division were looking into the incident
but declined further comment when contacted by Reuters.
There have been a series of incidents
involving armed men being shot by security officers on or near the White House
grounds over the years, including the 2016 shooting of a man who brandished a
handgun at a White House security gate.
In May 2023, a 20-year-old Indian immigrant
named Sai Varshith Kandula unsuccessfully tried to break through the White
House’s protective barriers in a rented U-Haul truck.
Trump himself narrowly survived an
assassination attempt in July, when a gunman fired at him during a rally in
Butler, Pennsylvania, wounding his ear.
In September, a second attempt on his life was
thwarted when a potential shooter was spotted hiding outside Trump’s golf club
in West Palm Beach, Florida.
