Secret Service: Man Tackled After Jumping White House Fence
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A man who tried to breach the White House fence was tackled and arrested before he got on the executive mansion's grounds Monday, according to the U.S. Secret Service.
The Washington Post reported a Secret Service officer saw the man about 4:30 p.m. Monday cross a bike rack on the northeastern fence line.
The agency said in a statement that the man did not gain entry to the grounds and the incident was quickly resolved.
An agency spokesman told The Post that the suspect was turned over to D.C. police.
Last year, multiple security breaches made headlines at the White House, and Secret Service Director Julia Pierson ended up stepping down.
Pierson resigned after being on the hot seat for a number of security lapses. Most infamously on Sept. 19, Omar Gonzalez, armed with a knife, raced unobstructed 70 yards across the White House North Lawn. He brushed by a Secret Service officer who had a drawn gun and entered the mansion.
Sources said Gonzalez then ran more than 30 feet through the Entrance Hall to the Cross Hall, right past the staircase leading up to the First Family's residence.
He confronted a female Secret Service agent and overpowered her, and ran about another 100 feet through the Cross Hall And into the East Room, where he was ultimately brought down at the door to the Green Room, sources said.
And in November – well after Pierson's resignation – a Stamford, Connecticut man jumped the White House while draped in an American flag, after court documents said he left a suicide note with his friends and a will with his mother.
According to court documents, Caputo had been staying with two friends in Virginia at the time, and the friends provided the Secret Service with a note in which Caputo stated his intention to die on Thanksgiving Day last year.
According to the documents, the note read, in part, "Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around us who transform into the Force,'' in an apparent reference to the mythology of the "Star Wars'' movies.
Caputo ran toward the White House after he scaled the fence, but when Secret Service officers ordered him to stop and get on the ground, he quickly complied, according to the documents. He told the officers, "I love my country'' and "I knew I would be locked up,'' the documents state.
Caputo was charged with one count of illegal entry onto restricted grounds, which carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison.
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