Law enforcement authorities are responding to reports of shots fired near White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — Law enforcement authorities are responding to shots fired near the White House grounds.
Journalists working there Saturday reported hearing a series of gunshots and were told to seek shelter inside the press briefing room. U.S. Secret Service officers kept them from leaving.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or information about the circumstances.
On X, the Secret Service said it was “aware of reports of shots fired near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW” — one block from the White House — and was “working to corroborate the information with personnel on the ground.”
In a social media post, FBI Director Kash Patel said officers were responding to shots fired and said he would “update the public as we’re able.”
President Donald Trump was inside the White House at the time.
The Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for information.
The gunfire Saturday comes nearly a month after what law enforcement authorities said was an attempted assassination of the president on April 25 as he attended the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at a Washington hotel. Cole Tomas Allen, of Torrance, California, recently pleaded not guilty to charges that he attempted to kill Trump and remains in federal custody.
Following that scare, Secret Service officers shot a suspect they said had fired at officers near the Washington Monument, also near the White House. Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was charged in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in connection with the May 4 shooting. A teenage bystander was wounded in that incident.
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