The suspected gunman who shot at the White House on Saturday evening had a history of encounters with the Secret Service and may have had mental health concerns.
Multiple reports have identified the shooter as 21-year-old Nasire Best from Maryland. According to an affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court, he had reportedly been flagged by the Secret Service “for walking around the White House complex inquiring how to gain access at various entry posts,” per the New York Times.
During an incident in June, he was involuntarily held for blocking a vehicle trying to enter the east side of the White House, and another time, he was detained and told authorities that he believed he was Jesus Christ and wanted to get arrested.
On Saturday, Best opened fire at a White House checkpoint around 6:10 p.m., after he had been seen pacing up and down 17th Street Northwest, per the New York Post. After he began shooting, the Secret Service returned fire and took him down. Best was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. One bystander was reportedly hit by gunfire and seriously injured during the incident.
The motivation of the shooter, and whether he was targeting President Donald Trump, is not known at this time.
The president posted on Truth Social early on Sunday, thanking the Secret Service and law enforcement. He wrote that the shooter “had a violent history and possible obsession with our Country’s most cherished structure,” and noted that just recently there was another threat on White House officials.
“This event is one month removed from the White House Correspondent’Dinner shooting, and goes to show how important it is, for all future Presidents, to get, what will be, the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built in Washington, D.C. The National Security of our Country demands it!” President Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In April, President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and other Trump officials were evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ dinner after Secret Service apprehended a shooter, who ran past the security checkpoint at the hotel where the event was being hosted. The suspect was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, who was detained at the scene and later indicted by a grand jury with attempting to assassinate a president and assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon.
