Report: White House Fence Jumper Stopped by Off-Duty Secret Service Agent

Omar Gonzales, the man who successfully broke past security and ran into the White House weeks ago, may have gone further than the East Room had an off-duty Secret Service agent not been walking by on his way home.

According to The Washington Post, Gonzales, who had scaled the fence, ran across the North Lawn, overpowered an agent by the front door, and made it deep inside the White House, was eventually tackled by a male agent who had escorted the Obama daughters onto a helicopter minutes earlier, and had been walking inside the house when Gonzalez ran by.

“There’s no telling how long this guy could have run around if the detail guy hadn’t happened to be there,” an anonymous source told the Post.

The Secret Service had claimed earlier that Gonzales was detained at the door of the North Portico, until a new Post report revealed yesterday that he had made it as far as the East Wing.

Earlier today, Secret Service director Julia Pierson faced intense questioning from the House Oversight Committee over the security lapses during the Gonzalez incident, as well as a separate 2011 incident where shots were fired at the White House. Pierson had claimed earlier that Gonzales was detained at the door, until a new Washington Post report revealed that he had made it as far as the East Room, where diplomatic receptions are held.

[The Washington Post]
[Image via jcs27/Wikimedia Commons]

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