President Donald Trump was abruptly led away from the White House briefing room Monday after gunshots were fired outside, according to multiple reports.
One person was shot by the Secret Service, according to early reports from the scene.
A Secret Service officer was transported to a local hospital, the Secret Service confirmed Monday night.
White House officials said the president was never in any danger, nor do they believe he was the target of the shooting.
The gunfire erupted outside the White House grounds but close to the fence on 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue near Lafayette Park, according to ABC News, citing a senior administration official. There, a suspect apparently opened fire on someone who was not an employee of the White House.
Reports said medics attended to a person on the ground after the shooting, and a suspect was taken to a nearby hospital. The District of Columbia Fire Department said the man suffered serious or possibly critical injuries.
Law enforcement officials were still trying to determine the suspect’s motive.
Authorities were investigating whether the individual has a history of mental illness, reports said.
Secret Service hustled the president into the Oval Office just as Trump was beginning to give the latest update on the coronavirus response.
A staffer — reportedly a Secret Service agent — walked up and whispered to the president, interrupting him midsentence, and escorted the president from the briefing room without explanation.
The White House was placed on lockdown after the incident. Streets were blocked off near the scene.
The president was not taken into the White House bunker during the episode.
Curious reporters in the briefing room scrambled to the windows in the room to assess the situation outside.
The president returned about nine minutes later and continued the briefing, saying the Secret Service just shot someone outside the White House.
“There was a shooting, law enforcement shot someone, seems to be someone, and the suspect is on the way to the hospital,” Trump said.
The president said the shots were fired by law enforcement, saying he believed the individual who was shot was armed. “It was the suspect who was shot,” Trump said.
Trump praised the work of Secret Service personnel for their work in keeping him safe. Asked if he was shaken by the incident, Trump asked reporters: “I don’t know. Do I seem rattled?”
— Information provided by The Associated Press was used to supplement this report.
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