Photo: Alamy
The U.S. Secret Service said Monday that a suspect and a bystander were injured in an officer-involved shooting near the White House, with both taken to hospitals for treatment.
Gunshots were reported as President Donald Trump was speaking inside the East Room during a Small Business Summit, prompting security measures that included moving members of the press to a briefing area and placing parts of the complex under lockdown.
Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics first reported the incident.
âSecret Service Uniformed Division officers shot a man who they thought might have a gun at the @WhiteHouse this afternoon before President Trump’s press conference. When the @SecretService officers confronted the man, it went sideways, and they ended up shooting him, sources in the Secret Service community told @RCPolitics,â she posted.
âAll Secret Service officers are safe — but the man is down and in custody. Update: I’m told the man did have a gun,â she added.
The Secret Service said the shooting occurred near 15th Street and Independence Avenue in northwest Washington and stemmed from a confrontation between an armed individual and agency personnel.
Deputy Director Matt Quinn told reporters that both the suspect and a teenage bystander were shot in the exchange and transported to nearby hospitals. Their conditions were not immediately known.
Quinn said the suspect is now in police custody at the hospital. Authorities have not released the identities of those involved.
In an update from Quinn, he noted that the individual fled when confronted and fired shots toward agents. Agents then returned fire, striking the suspect. Another bystander was also struck during the incident and is reportedly in non-life-threatening condition.
The incident comes just over a week after a separate shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, where a gunman opened fire and struck a Secret Service agentâs protective vest.
