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Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn said plainclothes
agents spotted the man around 3:30 p.m. in the area near the
White House complex and saw the imprint of the weapon on him.
The agents followed him briefly and contacted the uniformed
officers.
The unidentified man attempted to flee when uniformed officers
with the Secret Service approached him. Quinn said the man fired
at the officers, who returned fire.
The alleged gunman was transported to a local hospital. Quinn
said he had no information on the suspect's condition.
Quinn said emergency personnel also transported a minor who was
shot but not seriously injured. Quinn said he could not say
definitively that the bystander, who also was taken to a
hospital, was struck by shots from the suspect's gun. “We’ll let
the doctors figure that out,” he said, though he noted that
“investigators believe he was struck by the suspect.”
Quinn said the Washington, D.C., police would investigate the
officer-involved shooting.
The Secret Service encouraged people to avoid the area as
emergency crews responded to the shooting not far from the White
House, where President Donald Trump was holding a small business
event.
The White House was briefly locked down as authorities
investigated the incident. The Secret Service ushered
journalists who were outside into the briefing room, and Trump
continued his event without interruption.
The incident drew a large police presence, coming just over a
week after a gunman tried to storm the White House
Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives. Cole
Tomas Allen has been charged in that incident, in which a Secret
Service officer was shot, although he was wearing body armor and
was not seriously injured.
Quinn said it was not known yet whether the Monday incident was
related to Trump. “I’m not going to guess on that,” Quinn said.
“Whether or not it was directed to the president or not, I don’t
know, but we will find out.”
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