(Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP)
An armed man opened fire near the White House in Washington on Saturday evening, after which he was shot dead during a shootout with members of the American Secret Service.
Pres. Donald Trump was in the White House during the incident, Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi said.
The incident took place just after 18:00 (US time) when a man near the White House border fence “pulled a weapon from his pocket and started shooting”.
“Secret service members returned fire and hit the suspect. He was transported to a hospital in the area where he was pronounced dead. A bystander was hit and wounded during the shooting,” Guglielmi said. No details were released about the bystander’s condition.
Trump said some time after the incident on Truth Social that the deceased had a “violent history” and a “possible obsession with our country’s most cherished structure”.
Several American media sources identified the deceased as Nasire Best, 21, of Maryland. It was reported that Best had a history of mental health problems and had several previous interactions with members of the Secret Service.
Trump (79) has already been the target of three alleged assassination attempts, the most recent of which took place on April 25 when an armed man stormed a security checkpoint in a hotel where Trump was attending a media gala.
He was also targeted in July 2024 during an election rally in Pennsylvania. Trump was hit in the ear when an armed man fired several shots. A member of the audience was shot dead. The 20-year-old attacker was shot dead by a member of the secret service.
A few months later, an armed man was arrested near the border of Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, where Trump was playing a round. A firearm with a telescope, similar to an AK-47, and a GoPro video camera were seized.
During a shootout with the secret service, the suspect ran from the bushes in which he was hiding and got away in a black car. A witness helped the police to identify the vehicle after which the authorities located it.