The Secret Service opened fire on a man during an armed confrontation near the White House early Sunday. The shooting happened shortly after midnight, just a block west of the White House near the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
The Secret Service revealed in a statement that on Saturday police had alerted them about a potentially suicidal individual who was possibly traveling to Washington, D.C., from Indiana.
Fox News Digital has more on this story:
At around midnight, members of the Secret Service encountered the man’s parked car near 17th and F Streets, NW, and saw a person matching his description nearby.
"As officers approached, the individual brandished a firearm and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots were fired by our personnel," the agency wrote in a statement.
"The suspect was rushed to an area hospital and his condition is unknown."
There were no reported injuries to Secret Service personnel.
The Metropolitan Police Department will lead an investigation into the shooting since they are the primary agency responsible for use-of-force incidents within the District of Columbia, the Secret Service said.
President Donald Trump was not in the White House at the time, per his schedule. The president is expected to leave his Mar-a-Lago estate today at 5 p.m. and return to the capital.
This is all the information available at this time. Investigators are working to piece together details.
Similar incidents have occurred in the past, resulting in individuals being charged with attempted assassination.
In 2011, a man was charged with attempting to assassinate then-President Barack Obama after firing two shots at the White House. The suspect, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, from Idaho Falls, Idaho, was later apprehended in Indiana, Pa., following an intense manhunt that spanned several days. He was brought before a Pittsburgh court for his first hearing, where prosecutors detailed the gravity of his actions.
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One of the bullets struck a window on the executive mansion’s south side but was stopped by the protective glass, preventing further damage. Authorities had been searching for Ortega-Hernandez since the shooting, which took place while Barack and Michelle Obama were not at the White House. Though no one was injured in the incident, witnesses reported hearing gunfire and seeing a man fleeing the area in a vehicle. Investigators later found an abandoned car nearby that contained a weapon, along with other pieces of evidence tying him to the crime, officials said.
A similar attack occurred in 1994 when Francisco M. Duran fired 29 shots from an assault rifle at the White House. At the time, President Bill Clinton was away, and despite the barrage of gunfire, no one was injured. Duran was swiftly apprehended, convicted of attempting to kill the president, and sentenced to a lengthy prison term. He remains incarcerated to this day, with a projected release date of September 3, 2029.
Authorities have yet to determine the suspect’s motive in this case or if his proximity to the White House with a gun was at all connected to an attempt to assassinate President Trump.
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