A Secret Service police officer holds a weapon as he stands near an entrance to the White House complex during an evacuation minutes after President Barack Obama departed Washington for Camp David aboard Marine One on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014.
The Secret Service on Saturday launched a White House security review into how a Texas man was able to get inside the north door of the mansion Friday night after jumping a fence and sprinting nearly 200 yards across the North Lawn, getting farther than any fence jumper before.
Authorities say Omar J. Gonzales hopped over the north fence line near Pennsylvania Avenue about 7:20 p.m. Friday, setting off a standard security alarm indicating a breach of the perimeter. Officers demanded that he stop, but he did not respond, and they were unable to reach him on foot before he got inside the unlocked front doors of the presidential mansion. A guard stationed at the door subdued him.
Officers at the scene considered Gonzales to be unarmed and likely mentally disturbed, a law enforcement official familiar with the incident said. He had no package or backpack or bulky clothing, an indicator of having a possible bomb, so he was not viewed as someone the officers would have to shoot. Gonzalez is now undergoing monitoring at the psychiatric ward at George Washington University, according to the official. He is being interviewed by Secret Service investigators.
Gonzales made it over the fence line just minutes after President Obama and the first family took off from the South Lawn on a Marine One helicopter bound for Camp David. The White House grounds were ordered evacuated briefly after Gonzales was able to get inside the unlocked portico doors. They are unlocked because people frequently go in and out of those doors, and it has been considered impossible up until now that an unauthorized person would be able to reach them.
