Crackdown on security at the White House
The Secret Service chief has stepped up security outside the White House after a man with a knife who jumped the fence made it into the presidential residence before being apprehended.
United States President Barack Obama insisted he still has confidence in the beleaguered agency’s ability to protect him and his family.
Secret Service director Julia Pierson ordered enhanced officer patrols and surveillance along the compound’s north fence just after the incident on Saturday, which triggered a rare evacuation of the White House as well as renewed scrutiny of the Secret Service. The agency said Pierson had also ordered a comprehensive review of what happened.
“The President has full confidence in the Secret Service and is grateful to the men and women who day in and day out protect himself, his family and the White House,” said White House spokesman Frank Benenati.
The White House is one of the most heavily protected buildings in the world. Another man was arrested yesterday outside the White House in an unrelated event.
The Security Service says Obama and his daughters had just left the White House by helicopter when 42-year-old Omar Gonzalez scaled the fence and darted across the lawn and through the unlocked North Portico doors before officers tackled him.
“Although . . . the officers showed tremendous restraint and discipline in dealing with this subject, the location of Gonzalez’s arrest is not acceptable,” the agency said.
The Secret Service will review security and operational policies.
Officials had said Gonzalez seemed unarmed as he sprinted across the lawn — potentially one reason agents didn’t shoot him or release dogs to detain him. But he had a small folding knife with a 9cm serrated blade when he was arrested.
According to a criminal complaint, when Gonzalez was stopped he told agents he was “concerned that the atmosphere was collapsing” and needed to contact the President “so he could get word out to the people”.
Gonzalez, of Texas, was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation. He was expected to appear in federal court to face charges of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon.
Less than a day later a second man drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave.