WASHINGTON — An unidentified man was in the custody Wednesday night after he climbed over the White House fence and was swiftly apprehended on the North Lawn by uniformed Secret Service agents and their dogs.
The incident came about a month after a previous White House fence jumper sprinted across the same lawn, past armed uniformed agents and entered the mansion before he was felled in the ceremonial East Room and taken into custody.
That embarrassing Sept. 19 incident preceded the disclosure of other serious Secret Service breaches in security for President Barack Obama and ultimately led to Julia Pierson’s resignation as director of the agency after 18 months on the job.
Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said the man in Wednesday’s incident climbed the Pennsylvania Avenue fence shortly after 7 p.m. and was immediately apprehended by uniformed agents and K-9 teams that constantly patrol the grounds.
Video of the incident recorded by TV news cameras shows a man in white shorts on the lawn just inside the fence. The video shows that man lifting his shirt as if to show that he is unarmed. He is then seen kicking and punching two Secret Service dogs that were released on him.
The man was being taken to a local hospital, Leary said, without elaboration.
After Pierson resigned, an agent who once led Obama’s protective detail came out of retirement to lead the Secret Service until Obama names a new director, pending the completion of internal and independent reviews of agency practices.
This week, a federal judge delayed the arraignment of Omar Gonzalez, the individual charged in September’s fence-jumping incident, because of questions about his mental fitness to stand trial.
Gonzalez has been indicted on several charges, including of carrying a knife into the White House and assaulting two Secret Service officers.
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