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Man detained after shots at White House
Source: Agencies |
November 18, 2011, Friday
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A MAN obsessed with US President Barack Obama pulled his car within view of the White House at night and fired shots from an assault rifle, cracking a window of the living quarters while the president was away, authorities said.
The US secret service found two bullets had hit the White House and agents caught up with Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez in Pennsylvania on Wednesday after a four-day search.
Police arrested the 21-year-old Idaho man at a hotel after a desk clerk recognized his picture. Ortega was scheduled to make his first appearance yesterday in federal court in Pittsburgh, and many questions remained about his motive.
Authorities are investigating the man's mental health and say there are indications he believed attacking the White House was part of a personal mission ordained by God, according to a law enforcement official.
There are also indications the man had become obsessed with Obama and the White House, according to officials.
Shots were fired at the building last Friday night. Agents discovered on Tuesday that two bullets hit the exterior and a second cracked a window on the second floor, stopped by bullet-proof glass. The window that was hit is in front of the Yellow Oval Room, which is in the middle of the family's living quarters.
Obama and his wife Michelle were on a trip to California and Hawaii at the time of the shooting. Obama has since traveled to Australia on a nine-day Asia-Pacific tour.
Investigators believe Ortega fired the rifle from his vehicle on Friday, according to an official. Gunshots were reported that night on Constitution Avenue about 9:30pm. Soon afterward, US park police found an abandoned vehicle and the assault rifle near a bridge leading out of the nation's capital to Virginia. The car led investigators to Ortega.
This is not the first time the White House has come under attack.
In the past 40 years, the landmark has faced threats ranging from a stolen helicopter that landed on the grounds in 1974 to a man who wielded a sawn-off shotgun on a sidewalk in 1984.
In 1994 alone, there were five threats, including a plane crash on the lawn and a suspected drive-by shooting. Another man fired at least 29 rounds from a semiautomatic weapon - 11 shots hit the White House.
Dan Bongino, a former secret service agent who served on the presidential details for Obama and President George W. Bush, said Friday's shooting is likely to lead to tighter security and coordination.
"They do an exhaustive review of their security procedures every time something like this happens," he said. "Nothing ever works perfectly. They will undress this completely and then they will find out, when they rebuild the incident, exactly what they could have done better."
Bongino, who recently left the secret service to run for the US Senate in Maryland, said it was doubtful a gunman could strike a target such as the White House from a moving car at the distance investigators suspect he shot.
The US secret service found two bullets had hit the White House and agents caught up with Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez in Pennsylvania on Wednesday after a four-day search.
Police arrested the 21-year-old Idaho man at a hotel after a desk clerk recognized his picture. Ortega was scheduled to make his first appearance yesterday in federal court in Pittsburgh, and many questions remained about his motive.
Authorities are investigating the man's mental health and say there are indications he believed attacking the White House was part of a personal mission ordained by God, according to a law enforcement official.
There are also indications the man had become obsessed with Obama and the White House, according to officials.
Shots were fired at the building last Friday night. Agents discovered on Tuesday that two bullets hit the exterior and a second cracked a window on the second floor, stopped by bullet-proof glass. The window that was hit is in front of the Yellow Oval Room, which is in the middle of the family's living quarters.
Obama and his wife Michelle were on a trip to California and Hawaii at the time of the shooting. Obama has since traveled to Australia on a nine-day Asia-Pacific tour.
Investigators believe Ortega fired the rifle from his vehicle on Friday, according to an official. Gunshots were reported that night on Constitution Avenue about 9:30pm. Soon afterward, US park police found an abandoned vehicle and the assault rifle near a bridge leading out of the nation's capital to Virginia. The car led investigators to Ortega.
This is not the first time the White House has come under attack.
In the past 40 years, the landmark has faced threats ranging from a stolen helicopter that landed on the grounds in 1974 to a man who wielded a sawn-off shotgun on a sidewalk in 1984.
In 1994 alone, there were five threats, including a plane crash on the lawn and a suspected drive-by shooting. Another man fired at least 29 rounds from a semiautomatic weapon - 11 shots hit the White House.
Dan Bongino, a former secret service agent who served on the presidential details for Obama and President George W. Bush, said Friday's shooting is likely to lead to tighter security and coordination.
"They do an exhaustive review of their security procedures every time something like this happens," he said. "Nothing ever works perfectly. They will undress this completely and then they will find out, when they rebuild the incident, exactly what they could have done better."
Bongino, who recently left the secret service to run for the US Senate in Maryland, said it was doubtful a gunman could strike a target such as the White House from a moving car at the distance investigators suspect he shot.
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