Suspect shot dead near White House after firing at security checkpoint

US Secret Service Police and District of Columbia Emergency Medical Services are seen on a crime scene after responding to reports of shots fired near the White House. Picture: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

A person who approached a White House security checkpoint and began firing at officers has died after being shot, according to federal officials.

The US Secret Service said in a statement late on Saturday that, according to a preliminary investigation, the person approached a checkpoint shortly after 6pm local time, “pulled a weapon from his bag and began firing at posted officers”.

Officers returned fire and hit the suspect – named as Nasire Best, 21, by a law enforcement official – who was transported to an area hospital where he later died, according to the Secret Service.

A bystander was struck and was in a critical condition, but a law enforcement official said it was not clear whether that person was struck by the suspect’s initial bullets or those fired subsequently by officers.

Secret Service said none of its officers were injured and that President Donald Trump — who was at the White House at the time — was not “impacted”.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump thanked the Secret Service and law enforcement officers for their “swift and professional action” and said the suspect had a “violent history”.

Journalists working at the White House on Saturday reported hearing a series of gun shots and were told to seek shelter inside the press briefing room.

In a post shared on X, the senior White House correspondent for ABC News Selina Wang shared dramatic video of the moment she said she heard what “sounded like dozens of gunshots” and ducked for cover.

Writing that she had been performing a task that reporters at the White House do day in and day out — filming themselves on a cellphone, for a social media post — the video shows her speaking for a few seconds about Mr Trump’s statements earlier on Saturday about a potential Iran deal.

As the sounds of gunfire are heard in the background, her eyes grow wider, and she ducks down in the media tent, which is among those situated in a line along the White House driveway where broadcasters film their reports.

The Metropolitan Police Department said on X that the Secret Service was working the scene and cautioned people to avoid the area.

The scene is near where a gunman ambushed two members of the West Virginia National Guard last November.

US Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from her wounds. Andrew Wolfe, then 24, was critically wounded. Rahmanullah Lakanwal has been charged in that incident.

The gunfire on Saturday comes nearly a month after what law enforcement authorities said was an attempted assassination of the president on April 25 as he attended the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at a Washington hotel.

Cole Tomas Allen, of Torrance, California, pleaded not guilty to charges that he attempted to kill Mr Trump and remains in federal custody.

Following that scare, Secret Service officers shot a suspect they said had fired at officers near the Washington Monument, also near the White House.

Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was charged in a complaint filed in US District Court in connection with the May 4 shooting. A teenage bystander was wounded in that incident.