White House intruder held over assault on police dogs

The 23-year-old Maryland man who climbed over the White House fence on Wednesday night has been charged with assaulting two police dogs and making threats, the Secret Service said.

Dominic Adesanya of Bel Air, Maryland, is in custody of the US Marshals Service for previous outstanding warrants, Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said. Adesanya has also been charged with four misdemeanour counts of resisting arrest and unlawful entry.

After climbing over the fence, Adesanya was swiftly apprehended on the North Lawn by uniformed Secret Service agents and their dogs. He was unarmed when arrested.

President Barack Obama was at the White House at the time of Wednesday’s incident. Video of the incident recorded by TV news cameras shows a man in white shorts on the lawn just inside the fence. He lifts his shirt as if to show he is unarmed, then is seen kicking and punching the two Secret Service dogs.

Leary said the two dogs, named Hurricane and Jordan, were taken to a veterinarian and treated for minor bruising. Both dogs were cleared to return to duty.

The incident came about a month after a previous White House fence jumper carrying a knife sprinted across the same lawn, ran past armed uniformed agents and entered the mansion before he was felled and taken into custody.

That embarrassing September 19 incident preceded the disclosure of other serious Secret Service breaches in security for Obama and ultimately led to Julia Pierson’s resignation as director of the agency after 18 months in the job.

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.