Donald Trump escorted from press conference by Secret Service after White House shooting

Authored by abc.net.au and submitted by LuckyBdx4

US President Donald Trump says a person has been shot outside the White House, forcing a Secret Service agent to escort him from the press briefing room.

Key points: Mr Trump said an "armed" person was shot outside the White House

Mr Trump said an "armed" person was shot outside the White House The person was taken to hospital after suffering "serious" injuries

The person was taken to hospital after suffering "serious" injuries Mr Trump was in the middle of a press briefing and was rushed from the room by Secret Service

Mr Trump said he understood the person who was shot was armed and was taken to hospital. No-one else was injured.

"It was a shooting outside of the White House," Mr Trump said.

"It seems to be very well under control ... But there was an actual shooting, and somebody has been taken to the hospital. I don't know the condition of the person."

Mr Trump said two shots were fired in "rapid succession' during the incident.

He said the shooting was "near the edge of the White House grounds" and he was taken to the Oval Office while "law enforcement" dealt with the situation.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 35 seconds 35 s Witnesses captured the moments after the Secret Service shot a man outside the White House.

Trump was ushered from press room as incident unfolded

Mr Trump was a few minutes into a scheduled press briefing when a member of the Secret Service walked on stage and cut him off mid-sentence.

He was escorted from the room along with several administration officials who had joined him for the press briefing.

Journalists were locked inside the room during the incident, and armed police were seen outside, guarding the exits.

The shooting took place near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, just blocks from the White House, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation who were not authorised to speak publicly about it, according to the Associated Press.

The area is just west of Lafayette Square, the park in front of the White House that was recently the scene of clashes between demonstrators and authorities during the Black Lives Matter protests.

Police gathered on the streets surrounding the White House after the incident. ( AP: Patrick Semansky )

The suspect was transferred to a local hospital, and the District of Columbia fire department said the man suffered serious or possibly critical injuries.

Authorities were investigating the suspect's motive, and whether they had a history of mental illness, AP reported.

Mr Trump later resumed the press conference and praised the work of Secret Service personnel for their work in keeping him safe.

Reporters asked Mr Trump if he was shaken by the incident.

"I don't know. Do I seem rattled?" Mr Trump said.

"It's unfortunate that this is a world, but the world's always been a dangerous place. It's not something that's unique."

Police blocked streets outside Lafayette Square after the shooting. ( Reuters: Leah Millis )

In 2018, a 35-year-old woman was arrested after she drove into a security barrier near the White House.

Then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was caught up in the lockdown, which happened just after he had given a press conference with Mr Trump.

In 2019, a woman was arrested after she followed another vehicle past an external White House checkpoint.

runnerx4 on August 10th, 2020 at 23:55 UTC »

Shooting not targeting Trump, per this article

Two blocks away, seems to be someone shooting at someone else and the Secret Service were thankfully nearby, per article

UPDATE:

“The suspect approached the officer and told the officer he had a weapon,” Secret Service Uniformed Division Chief Tom Sullivan told reporters late Monday. “The suspect then turned around, ran aggressively towards the officer, and in a drawing motion, withdrew an object from his clothing. He then crouched into a shooter’s stance as if he was about to fire a weapon. The Secret Service officer discharged his weapon, striking the individual in the torso.”

Some middle aged man decided to commit suicide-by-SS I guess. Seems completely unrelated to Trump, thank god

voksul on August 10th, 2020 at 22:37 UTC »

The most updated information seems to be from ABC.

A senior official told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl the shooting happened on 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. A suspect open fired on a non-White House employee and Uniformed Secret Service returned fire, according to the official.

Trump said "from what I understand" the suspect was armed. He said law enforcement officer shot the suspect outside of the premises of the White House but close to the fence.

"It's unfortunate that this is the world but the world has always been a dangerous place. It's not something that's unique," he added.

The president was taken out of the briefing room and into the Oval Office for about nine minutes.

"We don't know" if the suspect mentioned a name, he said. "It might not have had anything to do with me."

He said he didn't know if the suspect was male or female. [now confirmed to be an adult male in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the upper body]

Trump said he "didn't even think about not coming back" to brief reporters.

Asked what the Secret Service agent told when he was approached mid-sentence, Trump said, "Just told me when he came up, you pretty much saw it like I did. He said, 'Sir, could you please come with me?' So, you were surprised. I was surprised, also. I think it’s probably it's pretty unusual but very, very professional people, they all do a fantastic job, as you know.

MajorTokes on August 10th, 2020 at 22:35 UTC »

I can see it now, the FBI and NSA are going to get hammered with trigger phrases from this thread.