WHITE HOUSE —
An intruder with a backpack who had scaled the outer perimeter fence around the White House was arrested shortly before midnight Friday on the grounds of the president’s official residence in Washington.
Uniformed U.S. Secret Service officers arrested the person without incident. In a written statement, Secret Service spokesman Martin Mulholland said Saturday that the backpack had been found to be free of hazardous materials.
A full search of the north and south White House grounds was done after the intrusion, but the spokesman said nothing of concern was found.
Mulholland said Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly was fully briefed on the incident.
President Donald Trump was in the White House at the time but was not in any danger, according to multiple White House sources. He told reporters Saturday he had been informed of the incident promptly.
“Secret Service did a fantastic job last night. I appreciate it,” he said. “Secret Service did a fantastic job. It was a troubled person.”
The Secret Service did not identify the intruder or say what the motive might have been. An official confirmed to VOA that the individual had no prior criminal history.
The Secret Service enhanced security around the White House after three incidents occurred in September 2014. In the most serious incident, an Iraq War veteran said to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder jumped the fence on September 19 and ran through the North Portico entrance and into the East Room of the residence, where he was apprehended. He was carrying a small knife in his pocket. Then-President Barack Obama and his family were not home at the time.
Less than 24 hours later, a New Jersey 19-year old was arrested and charged with unlawful entry after he tried to enter a White House gate on foot, then returned later in a vehicle, which he refused to get out of at a security checkpoint.
On September 11, a man scaled the White House fence and was apprehended quickly on the North Lawn.
In 2016, a uniformed Secret Service officer shot and wounded a man who approached a White House entrance and refused orders to put down a pistol he was carrying.
Several members of Congress have previously called for a congressional investigation into White House security breaches. After the 2014 incidents, Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, told Fox News, “This is the most basic, the most simple type of procedure. How anyone — especially in these days of ISIS [the Islamic State terrorist group], and we’re concerned about terrorist attacks — someone could actually get into the White House without being stopped is inexcusable.”
Attempts to reach King on Saturday were unsuccessful.
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