Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, is facing federal charges after authorities said he confronted law enforcement near the Washington Monument on Monday and later was shot multiple times during the incident. According to a court filing submitted Wednesday, investigators said Marx had been walking along the route where Vice President JD Vance’s motorcade traveled before officers identified him near the intersection of 15th Street and Independence Avenue.
The filing said officers were responding to a report from a U.S. Secret Service agent that Marx had been seen near the White House complex with a firearm concealed on the right side of his body. The affidavit described Marx as pulling a firearm from his waistband as he ran away from Secret Service officers and firing at one of them. It said the confrontation also resulted in a teenage bystander being shot in the leg.
Authorities said officers returned fire and struck Marx in his abdomen, a hand and his left arm, according to the filing. The affidavit also said Marx spit at officers while they provided him aid after the shooting. The court filing did not specify whether investigators believe Marx had a particular target during the confrontation.
The court filing further described what Marx said after the shooting, saying he was in the back of an ambulance on his way to a hospital when he made remarks about the White House. A Secret Service agent’s affidavit, as described in the filing, included that Marx said, “‘F—k the White House’ and “Kill me, kill me, kill me,’” while being transported.
Marx was charged in a complaint with assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon, discharging a firearm during a violent crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, the filing said. Prosecutors said the case will be pursued aggressively; U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement her office “will pursue the most serious charges available against anyone who brings gun violence to our streets, particularly when that violence unfolds steps from the seat of our government and the path of the Vice President of the United States.”
ABC News reported that the teenage bystander was not seriously injured and had been released from a hospital. Online court records did not immediately list a lawyer representing Marx, and the filing said Marx has used aliases, including Michael Patrick and Michael Zavici.
The filing said Marx had a 2011 drug trafficking conviction in Florida, which made it illegal for him to possess a firearm. The shooting occurred just over a week after another armed incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, in which prosecutors charged California man Cole Tomas Allen with attempting to assassinate the president and firing a gun at a Secret Service officer.