A youth allegedly opened fire on police officers at a checkpoint near the White House in Washington, D.C., before being shot dead when members of the U.S. Secret Service returned fire, this agency protecting the president, vice president and other high-ranking U.S. officials said, citing, however, a passing wounded man from crossfire.

Donald Trump, the target of three alleged attempts on his life in the past two years, was in the presidential building at the time the shooting broke out; he had cancelled planned travel because of the war with Iran.

A few minutes after 6 p.m. (local time; 1 a.m. ET), a man standing near the security perimeter of the historic presidential building “pulled a gun out of a bag and opened fire, Gulielmi.

“Secret Service officers returned fire and shot the suspect, who was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead. During the exchange of fire, a passerby was also hit by bullets,” he continued, without going into details about the condition of the latter.

No agents were injured, the spokesman assured.

According to US media reports, including reports from CNN and ABC News, the suspect was named Nazir Best and was 21 years old. The young man, from Maryland, near Washington, had a history of psychiatric problems and was known to the Secret Service: he had attempted to infiltrate the White House grounds again the day before, telling guards that he was “Jesus Christ” and that he wanted to be arrested, ABC sources said.

Reed Adrian, a Canadian tourist, told Agence France-Presse that he was in that section of the US capital when “we heard 20 to 25 bursts of gunfire, which looked like fireworks, but they were gunshots, and the whole world started running.”

Blocking the perimeter

Police immediately blocked access to the perimeter. National Guard soldiers prevented an AFP journalist from entering the area. Journalists in the northern grassy area reported via X that they were ordered to run for cover in the presidency press room.

ABC News correspondent Selina Wang was about to record video she intended for use on social media sites when the gunfire began to ring out. She recorded the gunfire on her cellphone, lying on the ground, as the video she released via X shows.

“It sounded like dozens of shots,” she noted.

FBI chief Cass Patel, a loyalist of President Trump, confirmed the incident: “The FBI is on the ground and supporting the Secret Service,” he said via X.

The US president, 79, has been the target of three alleged assassination attempts. The most recent was recorded as recently as April 25, when a gunman tried to run past a security checkpoint outside the hotel room where Mr Trump, along with his wife and top administration officials, had gone to attend the annual reception hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association.

In July 2024, while campaigning, then still-candidate President Trump was targeted in the middle of a speech in Butler, Pennsylvania, by a young man who shot and killed an attendee and lightly wounded the Republican–hitting him with a shrapnel fragment scratching his ear–before falling to his death from sniper bullets.

Some months later, another man was arrested on the boundary of the tycoon’s privately owned golf course in West Palm Beach, where he had gone to play a match.

“Thank God President Trump is safe,” the House Republican caucus said via X, expressing “endless gratitude” to the Secret Service and a wish that “political violence will stop” in the country.

Trump says the White House attacker had a “history of violence” and an “obsession” with the presidency

The young man who opened fire late Saturday afternoon (local time) near the White House yesterday before being shot dead by Secret Service agents had a “history of violence and possibly an obsession” with the historic U.S. presidential building, U.S. President Donald Trump said in commenting on the incident.

“Thank you to the great agents of the Secret Service and (other) law enforcement for the swift and professional action they took tonight against a gunman near the White House who had a history of violence and possible obsession with our country’s most cherished building,” the Republican said via Truth Social.