The Secret Service said agents shot a man Monday near the White House who is alleged to have opened fire after he was confronted by authorities.
Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn told reporters that the man, described as a ‘‘suspicious individual that appeared to have a firearm,’’ was spotted around 3:30 p.m. ET by plainclothes officers who alerted uniformed officers to apprehend him.
The man is alleged to have run away and brandished a firearm, which Quinn said he fired in the direction of Secret Service agents who returned fire. The man, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital. Quinn said he did not know his condition.
Quinn added that a bystander, who he said is a minor, was hit by gunfire and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Asked whether the bystander had been definitively hit by any gunfire from the gunman, Quinn said that he could not say and that he would instead ‘‘let the doctors figure that out.’’
‘‘But everything I’ve seen leads me to believe, and the investigators believe, he was struck by the suspect,’’ Quinn added.
The shooting took place at 15th Street and Independence Avenue, the Secret Service said on X.
No Secret Service agents were injured, Quinn said.
It was not clear whether the incident had any connection to President Donald Trump or the White House in general. The shooting comes a week after Cole Allen, 31, a teacher and engineer from California, was charged with attempting to assassinate the president on April 25.
‘‘We’re patrolling this area and every site we do, 24/7, hard-core,’’ Quinn said when he was asked whether the incident was related to other attempts on Trump’s life.
‘‘Whether or not it was directed to the president or not, I don’t know, but we will find out,’’ he added.
While the incident unfolded, Trump was holding a small-business summit in the White House’s East Room. That event was not interrupted.
Around the same time as the incident, the White House’s North Lawn was evacuated.
Secret Service officers ran onto the lawn with long guns and urged members of the
media to leave the lawn and move into the White House briefing room. The media was allowed back outside less than 10 minutes after it was first evacuated.
Vice President JD Vance’s motorcade passed nearby moments before the shooting, Quinn said. He said that the gunman did not attack the motorcade and that there was no indication that approaching it was his intent.
NBC News witnessed a motorcade leaving the White House around 3:37 p.m. Moments later, National Guard members and police officers ran south toward the direction of the motorcade after the sound of three to four pops.
Witnesses told NBC News that they saw a man run toward the motorcade before shots were fired.
Video obtained by NBC News shows a man who is naked and handcuffed being loaded onto a stretcher in the aftermath of the incident. A law enforcement official familiar with the case confirmed that the man in the video is the suspect.
In the video, the man appears awake, conscious and alert. He appeared to be white, middle-aged and with graying hair. He also appeared to have some sort of laceration on the left side of his face.
Asked how the Secret Service determined that the apprehended man was suspicious, Quinn declined to respond directly, saying, ‘‘That’s enough from me.’’
He had said moments earlier that the plainclothes officers observed a ‘‘visual print’’ of a firearm. He said those officers followed the man for a brief time before uniformed police engaged. Quinn said officers recovered a weapon but did not provide details about it.
He said the investigation will be conducted by Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department.
Source: NBC News
--Agencies
