White House briefly locked down after officer shoots individual on National Mall

WASHINGTON – The White House was briefly placed on lockdown on May 4 after a Secret Service officer shot an individual on the National Mall near the Washington Monument during a confrontation.

A juvenile bystander was also struck by a bullet from the suspect, officials said.

The shooting prompted the Secret Service to order reporters on the North Lawn of the White House to go inside to the press briefing room at 3:41 p.m. ET. About five minutes later, President Donald Trump hosted an event in the White House East Room where he gave a speech to small business owners as originally planned. Trump did not address the incident.

The shooting occurred near 15th Street and Independence Avenue, a few blocks from the White House, during a confrontation between an armed individual and Secret Service police, according to the Secret Service.

Matt Quinn, deputy director of the Secret Service, told reporters that Secret Service plain clothes officers who are assigned to patrol the perimeter of the White House identified a suspicious individual at 3:30 p.m. ET who appeared to be carrying a firearm.

Uniformed Secret Service police officers tried to make contact with the suspect, according to Quinn. He said the individual briefly fled on foot and then started firing his gun in the direction of the agents. The Secret Service officers returned fire.

The suspect was hit, along with one bystander, a juvenile, who did not sustain life-threatening injuries and is receiving treatment at a hospital. Quinn said the bystander was struck by the suspect, not an officer.

"Everything I've seen makes me to believe, and the investigators to believe, that he was struck by the suspect," Quinn said.

The condition of the suspect, who has not been identified, was not immediately clear. No one at the White House was injured or harmed.

The lockdown came amid heightened alert following a shootout at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on April 24, where a gunman ran through a magnetometer carrying guns and knives at the Washington Hilton. One Secret Service agent was hit by a bullet but was not severely injured. The suspect, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, was charged with firearms offenses and trying to assassinate the president.

During his remarks at the small business event, Trump hailed Washington's safety as a result of his administration's aggressive intervention that included deploying the National Guard onto the city's streets.

"Washington, DC, which was very unsafe a year ago, a little more than a year ago, is now one of the safest cities in the United States," Trump said.

The Secret Service's investigation into the most recent shooting is ongoing.

Quinn declined to speculate whether the suspect was targeting Trump. "Whether or not it was directed to the president or not, I don't know, but we will find out," he said.

Shortly before the shooting, Vice President JD Vance's motorcade traveled through the area of the incident. Quinn said there's no indication the suspect intended to target the motorcade.

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.