WASHINGTON — A man spotted carrying a gun in the vicinity of the White House by plainclothes officers and agents was shot by law enforcement Monday after he opened fire on them near the Washington Monument, the Secret Service said.
Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn said plainclothes agents spotted the man around 3:30 p.m. in the area near the White House complex and saw the imprint of the weapon on him. The agents followed him briefly and contacted the uniformed officers.
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The unidentified man attempted to flee when uniformed officers with the Secret Service approached him. Quinn said the man fired at the officers, who returned fire.
The alleged gunman was transported to a local hospital. Quinn said he had no information on the suspect’s condition.
Quinn said emergency personnel also transported a minor who was shot but not seriously injured. Quinn said he could not say definitively that the bystander, who also was taken to a hospital, was struck by shots from the suspect’s gun. “We’ll let the doctors figure that out,” he said, though he noted that “investigators believe he was struck by the suspect.”
Quinn said the Washington, D.C., police would investigate the officer-involved shooting.
The Secret Service encouraged people to avoid the area as emergency crews responded to the shooting not far from the White House, where President Donald Trump was holding a small business event.
The White House was briefly locked down as authorities investigated the incident. The Secret Service ushered journalists who were outside into the briefing room, and Trump continued his event without interruption.
The incident drew a large police presence, coming just over a week after a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives. Cole Tomas Allen has been charged in that incident, in which a Secret Service officer was shot, although he was wearing body armor and was not seriously injured.
Quinn said it was not known yet whether the Monday incident was related to Trump. “I’m not going to guess on that,” Quinn said. “Whether or not it was directed to the president or not, I don’t know, but we will find out.”
