Secret Service officers shot and wounded a man who fired at them near the Washington Monument on Monday afternoon, the agency said, in the second violent security breach near the White House in just over a week.
Deputy Director Matt Quinn told reporters that plainclothes agents first noticed the man about 3:30 p.m. in the vicinity of the White House complex and saw the outline of a weapon beneath his clothing. The agents followed him and contacted uniformed Secret Service officers, who approached the man. The man attempted to flee and then opened fire on the officers, Quinn said. The officers returned fire, striking the suspect.
The unidentified man was taken to a local hospital. Quinn said he had no information on the suspect’s condition.
Emergency personnel also transported a minor who had been shot but was not seriously injured, Quinn said. He could not say definitively whether the child was hit by a round from the suspect’s weapon or from the officers, but he noted that “investigators believe he was struck by the suspect.”
The shooting unfolded while President Donald Trump was inside the White House hosting a small business event. The White House was placed on a brief lockdown as authorities responded, and Secret Service personnel ushered journalists outside into the briefing room. Trump’s event continued without interruption.
Monday’s incident followed an attack on April 26, when a gunman armed with guns and knives tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, wounding a Secret Service officer who was wearing body armor. That suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, has been charged in the case.
Quinn said it was not yet known whether Monday’s shooting was directed at Trump. “I’m not going to guess on that,” he said. “Whether or not it was directed to the president or not, I don’t know, but we will find out.”
The Washington, D.C., police department will investigate the officer-involved shooting, the Secret Service said. Authorities urged the public to avoid the area as emergency crews worked the scene.