WASHINGTON — Authorities have identified the man who fatally shot himself in front of the White House. Police say it was 26-year-old Cameron Ross Burgess, recently of Maylene, Alabama, who approached the fence along the north side of the White House and fired several rounds from a handgun shortly before midday Saturday.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump were in Florida at the time, and the Secret Service says no member of the first family was at the White House then.
Secret Service took to Twitter to give updates Saturday:
Authorities say none of the shots appeared to have been directed toward the White House.
Media outlet Al.com reported that an Auburn University spokesman told it that Burgess graduated from the school in 2013. The newspaper reports that state records for Burgess revealed no criminal history.
U.S. Secret Service officers and crime scene police inspect a car reportedly belonging to a man who shot himself at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Sat., March 3, 2018.
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It is unclear if the incident was politically connected in nature, although CBS News security analyst Ron Hosko said that will be one thing law enforcement would look into as they investigate.
“You can get pretty darn close to the White House with a weapon,” Hosko said, describing how security is tight around the White House, but people are allowed to get relatively close to the perimeter.
The security scare came a little more than a week after a vehicle hit a security barrier near the White House, resulting in the arrest and charge of a 35-year-old driver. Tensions were heightened because Mr. Trump was home at the time.
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