A man was shot by Secret Service agents near the White House just after midnight on Sunday following an armed confrontation, according to a statement from the agency.
“Secret Service personnel were involved in a shooting following an armed encounter with a person of interest shortly after midnight on March 9,” Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi announced on X.
Before the shooting, local law enforcement received a report about a suicidal individual possibly traveling from Indiana to Washington, D.C., according to a press release. Secret Service officers later found the suspect’s vehicle parked near 17th and F Street, NW, close to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The officers also spotted a man nearby who matched the reported description.
“As officers approached, the individual brandished a firearm and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots were fired by our personnel,” the statement read.
The suspect was transported to a local hospital, but his current condition remains unknown. No Secret Service personnel were injured during the incident. The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division will investigate the shooting.
At the time of the incident, President Donald Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and was not present at the White House, according to the New York Post.
This is not the first time the Secret Service has responded with gunfire near the White House. In August 2020, during Trump’s first term, agents shot a 51-year-old man who had approached an officer and claimed he had a weapon. The suspect then took a shooting stance, prompting the officer to fire, hitting him in the torso. Trump, who was in the middle of a press conference at the time, was briefly escorted from the briefing room before returning to address the situation.
