WASHINGTON: The US Secret Service is reviewing its security measures after a man claiming to be an Iraq war veteran jumped over a White House fence and entered the presidential mansion with a knife.
The White House — the president’s workplace and home — is generally regarded as one of the most protected places on the planet. The lapse was the second security incident in as many days after a man was arrested Saturday for trying to enter the complex with his car minutes after attempting to walk into the White House.
Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary told AFP that Kevin Carr of Shamong, New Jersey, had been charged with trespassing.
Officials said that the fence jumper, identified as 42-year-old Omar Gonzalez, had entered the front doors of the White House unimpeded late Friday after sprinting across the North Lawn.
He ignored shouts from Secret Service agents after a trained attack dog failed to rush
toward him.
President Barack Obama and his family had left the White House for the Camp David presidential retreat just minutes before. Officials and journalists were rushed out of the building during the disturbance.
Gonzalez, of Copperas Cove, Texas, was arrested just after entering the building. Agents found a Spyderco VG-10 black folding knife with a 8.90-centimeter serrated blade in his right front pants pocket, according to an affidavit.
The Secret Service had initially said Gonzalez was unarmed.
During an initial appearance in US District Court in Washington on Saturday, he was charged with unlawful entry while in possession of a deadly or dangerous weapon. He faces up to 10 years behind bars. After his arrest, Gonzalez told a Security Service agent that “he was concerned that the atmosphere was collapsing and needed to get the information to the president of the United States so that he could get the word out to the people,” according to the affidavit. AFP
