Photo: Carol M. Highsmith / Library of Congress / Public domain
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Secret Service arrested two people near the White House on Monday morning in separate incidents, after a vehicle crashed onto a sidewalk at Lafayette Park and a second person allegedly jumped a barricade nearby. Reporters on the White House North Lawn were told to go inside just after 10:02 a.m., according to a White House press pool report.
The photograph is a 2006 aerial view of Lafayette Square and the White House. It is an archival image, not a photograph of Monday’s incident.
The Secret Service said Secret Service Police and National Guard personnel responded just before 10 a.m. to the north side of Lafayette Park at 16th Street and H Street NW, where a vehicle had crashed onto the sidewalk. The driver was combative with law enforcement but was quickly taken into custody, the Secret Service said. D.C. police were called to sweep the vehicle as a precaution, and roads around Lafayette Park were closed.
At about the same time, the Secret Service said, a second person allegedly jumped a barricade near the northwest corner of Lafayette Park. Officers arrested that person as well. The agency said both incidents remain under investigation.
The first pool report, sent at 10:07 a.m. by a Newsday correspondent, said reporters on the North Lawn were told by the Secret Service to head inside just after 10:02, and that most were in the briefing room. The second pool report, sent at 10:11 a.m., said the security incident “may be related” to a car crashing into a post near Lafayette Park, citing a reporter’s social media post. The pool report did not confirm the connection.
The Secret Service statements do not identify either person, give a motive, or say whether the two incidents are connected, and they do not describe any injuries. The account relies on Secret Service statements and the White House pool reports.
The incidents matter because Lafayette Park sits directly across from the White House, and the Secret Service can restrict movement for reporters and the public in the area while it responds. Still unconfirmed: the identities of the two people, what charges they may face, why the vehicle crashed, and when restrictions on the area and the press were lifted.
JBizNews Desk | Washington, D.C.
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