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A person who approached a White House security checkpoint and began firing at officers has died, according to federal officials.
The U.S. Secret Service said in a statement late Saturday that, according to a preliminary investigation, the person approached a checkpoint shortly after 6 p.m. ET, “removed a weapon from his bag and began firing at posted officers.”
Officers returned fire and hit the suspect, who was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died, according to the Secret Service.
A bystander was also struck, but a law enforcement official said it wasn’t clear whether that person was hit by the suspect’s initial bullets or those fired subsequently by officers.
Secret Service said none of its officers were injured, and that U.S. President Donald Trump — who was at the White House at the time — was not “impacted.”
Reporter records live reaction
Journalists working there reported hearing a series of gunshots and were told to seek shelter inside the press briefing room, where U.S. Secret Service officers prevented them from leaving.
In a post shared on X, ABC News senior White House correspondent Selina Wang shared dramatic video of the moment she said she heard what “sounded like dozens of gunshots” and ducked for cover.
I was in the middle of taping on my iPhone for a social video from the White House North Lawn when we heard the shots. It sounded like dozens of gunshots. We were told to sprint to the press briefing room where we are holding now. pic.twitter.com/iqdQwh4soq
Writing that she had been performing a routine task that White House reporters do daily — filming herself with a cellphone for a social media post — Wang’s video shows her speaking for a few seconds about Trump’s statements earlier Saturday about a potential Iran deal.
As the sounds of gunfire are heard in the background, Wang’s eyes grow wider, and she ducks down in the media tent, which is among those situated in a line along the White House driveway where broadcasters film their reports.
On X, Wang’s video had been shared thousands of times as of Saturday evening, and viewed at least three million times.
Spate of shootings
The gunfire Saturday comes nearly a month after what law enforcement authorities described as an attempted assassination of the president at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at a Washington hotel.
Cole Tomas Allen, of Torrance, Calif., recently pleaded not guilty to charges that he attempted to kill Trump at the April 25 event. He remains in federal custody.
On May 4, Secret Service officers shot a suspect they said had fired at officers near the Washington Monument, also near the White House.
Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was charged in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in connection with that shooting, in which a teenage bystander was wounded.
