WASHINGTON – A screaming intruder made it onto the front lawn of the White House on Sunday while President Bush was at home before being apprehended by Secret Service officers.
Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren identified the man as 40-year-old Brian Lee Patterson, whose last known address was in Albuquerque, N.M. Patterson has been caught trying to get onto the White House grounds at least three times before, Zahren said.
The bearded man, wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt that said “God Bless America,” jumped the fence outside the White House and ran across the north lawn while repeatedly yelling, “I am a victim of terrorism!”
Waving his arms in the air, he screamed at officers who, with guns drawn, were ordering him to the ground: “I have intelligence information for the president. “I’m not afraid of you.”
Patterson eventually kneeled and was taken into custody by the Secret Service.
Zahren said Patterson was charged with unlawful entry for the last time he jumped the fence, in February. He faces the same charge for Sunday’s incident and also contempt of court or violating a judge’s orders to stay away from the White House.
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