A member of the U.S. Secret Service stands guard on the south side of the White House in Washington, D.C.
The agency didn’t properly handle two previous encounters with former U.S. Army veteran Omar Gonzalez, 42, including one last month in which a Secret Service officer questioned him strolling near the White House with a hatchet in his pants, according to the former officials. Another error was more mundane: failing to lock the executive mansion’s front door.
Despite those
mistakes, the former officials said the security officers on duty showed proper discretion in not unleashing attack dogs or opening fire when the man raced across the lawn just before 7:20 p.m. on Sept. 19.
“The officers were actually successful” because nobody was hurt and the trespasser was stopped before getting more than a few feet into the White House, said John Magaw, a onetime Secret Service director. “It’s not pretty. But I think there were a lot of good decisions made here.”
The breach occurred just after President Barack Obama and his daughters departed by helicopter for Camp David, Maryland, to join first lady Michelle Obama for the weekend.
The incident highlights the complicated nature of responding to fence jumpers and more ambiguous threats against the president. Security personnel must make life-or-death decisions in a matter of seconds.
Carrying Knife
The Secret Service is reviewing the incident and its interactions with Gonzalez, of Copperas Cove, Texas, who was charged in federal court with unlawful entry and is being held without bond.Ed Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, declined to discuss specifics about the incident or the review.
“Was it training? Was it tactics? Was it execution? Or was it protocols?” he said. “Everything is under review.”
When he hopped the fence, Gonzalez was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and had a knife in his pocket. A search of his car turned up more than 800 rounds of ammunition in boxes and magazines, two hatchets and a machete, prosecutors said in court yesterday.
When he was stopped on Aug. 25 near the south fence of the White House, he had a hatchet in his waistband, prosecutors said. The officer released Gonzalez after questioning. On July 19, authorities said, he was pulled over in Wythe County, Virginia, about 300 miles from Washington, and charged with possession of a weapon after officers found in his Ford Bronco a sawed-off shotgun and a map with a line drawn to the White House.
Database Search
Magaw said internal investigators need to uncover why the Secret Service didn’t keep better track of Gonzalez after his arrest and why the officer who later stopped him apparently didn’t run his name through databases that would have triggered a deeper investigation.“Why didn’t they do more with him in Richmond? That is one question,” Magaw said, referring to the Virginia state capital where the federal government has investigators. “Another is why this officer didn’t name check him. If he had name checked him, they would have had him weeks ago.”
Magaw said officers displayed good judgment in not unleashing guard dogs to chase down the fence-jumping intruder. In the confusion of the moment, the dogs may have attacked officers by mistake.
Showing Restraint
The internal review likely will find that most officers acted appropriately and showed restraint in not shooting Gonzalez. They could probably tell he wasn’t carrying a gun or a bomb or other type of weapon, he said.Paul Kelly, a former Secret Service agent who supervised security at the White House, said the agency’s review may prompt officials to deploy more roving teams inside the fence, to tackle intruders more quickly. Officers on regular guard duty don’t abandon their posts en masse to chase trespassers because such jumpers might be a diversion that’s part of a more dangerous assault, Kelly said.
“What were they supposed to do? Shoot the guy?” Kelly said. “We are supposed to have a line of death at the White House? No. That would not be acceptable.”
Officers have opened fire on White House intruders in the past. In 1976, an officer shot and killed a fence jumper holding a pipe. And in 1984, an officer shot and wounded a man on the sidewalk outside of the White House after he drew a loaded sawed-off shotgun.
Obama yesterday expressed confidence in the security personnel. “They do a great job,” he said. “I’m grateful for the sacrifices they make on my behalf and my family’s behalf.”
Checkpoints Considered
The Secret Service review will include a fresh look at security measures rejected in the past, including checkpoints for the tourists outside the White House grounds, according to a federal law enforcement official who requested anonymity before a decision is made. Other options include closing the public sidewalks along the White House fence.If the officers on duty erred, Magaw and others said, it was in leaving the front door unlocked and perhaps not having an officer posted on the North Portico, where Gonzalez entered. Magaw said the Secret Service probably will require officers stationed at the front door to routinely check that it’s bolted shut.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the door now will be locked when it’s not in use. It serves as the exit for thousands of people who take White House tours, he said.
More Surveillance
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee scheduled a Sept. 30 hearing into White House security breaches.Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who oversees the Secret Service, said he’ll evaluate the findings of the review and consult with White House officials and members of Congress.
“I encourage all of us to not rush to judgment about the event and not second-guess the judgment of security officers who had only seconds to act, until all the facts are in,” he said in a statement.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident on Sept. 19, the Secret Service put more officers on patrol outside the White House gates and increased surveillance, Earnest said. Officers also are getting more training on response procedures.
Thousands of visitors pass legally through the White House front door every year and millions more gather just yards away on Pennsylvania Avenue, poking cameras through the decorative iron bars that ring the mansion.
Any changes to procedures that affect the area outside the White House grounds will require coordination with multiple agencies, such as the U.S. Park Service and the Washington Metropolitan Police.
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