A bystander was shot after a man opened fire at a checkpoint Outside the White House He was shot by US Secret Service officers and remained in serious but stable condition on Sunday.
The Secret Service said a bystander, whose identity was not revealed, suffered a gunshot wound that was described as non-life-threatening. It is not clear how he was shot.
Authorities released some additional details about the shooting early Saturday evening. The suspect, identified as 21-year-old Nasir Best, began shooting toward a White House security checkpoint when Secret Service officers returned fire, the District of Columbia Police Department said. Best, of Dundalk, Maryland, was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a statement posted on social media that no officers were injured. “Our thoughts are also with the innocent bystanders who were injured during this incident,” Curran said. “The Secret Service hopes he makes a full recovery.”
President Donald Trump was in the White House at the time of the shooting.
This is the third shooting incident near the president in the past month, after a man stormed the building White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner In April, armed with guns and knives, Secret Service officers shot and wounded a man who had shot at them earlier this month. Near the Washington Monument.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the suspect in Saturday’s shooting had a “possible obsession with our country’s most treasured temple.” He also used the shooting to promote dancehall Striving to build on the website of the former East Wing of the White House, saying the shooting “shows how important it is for all future presidents to have the safest and most secure space of its kind ever in Washington, D.C.” Trump is asking Congress for $1 billion for security additions to the White House campus, including the ballroom.
Best had a previous run-in with law enforcement near the White House, according to District of Columbia court records. He was arrested last July for trying to enter the White House near a different checkpoint. He did not respond to officers’ orders to stop, claimed to be Jesus Christ, and said he wanted to be arrested.
Best was a track and field athlete at Dundalk High School, from which he graduated in 2023.
A woman who identified herself as Best’s mother told The Washington Post she learned of the shooting through social media and couldn’t believe it. She said her son “was never violent, no matter what people posted.”