{"id":23209,"date":"2026-05-24T18:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/man-dead-after-opening-fire-at-security-checkpoint-near-white-house-secret-service-says\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T18:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:21:10","slug":"man-dead-after-opening-fire-at-security-checkpoint-near-white-house-secret-service-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/man-dead-after-opening-fire-at-security-checkpoint-near-white-house-secret-service-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Man dead after opening fire at security checkpoint near White House, Secret Service says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. Secret Service<\/a> officers shot a man after he opened fire at a security checkpoint outside the White House<\/a> on Saturday evening, the Secret Service said in a statement. The gunman, who had previous encounters with the Secret Service, was taken to a hospital, where he later died, the agency said.<\/p>\n

A bystander was also shot in the incident, the Secret Service said, and it’s unclear whether the bystander was struck by the gunman or an officer.<\/p>\n

The bystander was rushed to the hospital in serious condition and underwent surgery, a law enforcement source with direct knowledge told MS NOW. The source described the bystander as a young male but did not know if he was an adult.<\/p>\n

No Secret Service personnel were injured in the shooting, the agency said.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump was at the White House during the incident but was “not impacted,” the Secret Service said. <\/p>\n

The president, who had announced on Friday his plans to be at the White House this weekend, posted on social media after midnight early Sunday morning, thanking Secret Service and law enforcement for their work and noting the gunman had what he called a “violent history and possible obsession” with the White House. Trump also mentioned last month’s White House correspondents’ dinner shooting and said Saturday’s incident underscores his desire for “the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built” in Washington.<\/p>\n

The suspected gunman has been identified as 21-year-old Nasire Best, two sources briefed on the matter told MS NOW. He was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where the Secret Service said he later died, according to the sources.<\/p>\n

Best had encounters with the Secret Service last summer and had an order to stay away from the White House, the sources said. He has a history of mental health issues, the sources said.<\/p>\n

The shooting Saturday occurred shortly after 6 p.m. ET at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, a few hundred feet from the White House, according to the Secret Service.<\/p>\n

“A preliminary investigation indicates that as the individual approached, he removed a weapon from his bag and began firing at posted officers,” according to the Secret Service statement. The incident is under investigation.<\/p>\n

Journalists working at the White House on Saturday reported hearing a series of gunshots and were told to seek shelter inside the press briefing room. Secret Service officers kept them from leaving. More than two dozen shots could be heard on video recorded<\/a> by ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selena Wang.<\/p>\n

In a social media post<\/a>FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI is “on the scene and supporting Secret Service responding to shots fired near White House grounds.” <\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Police Department said<\/a> it is working alongside the Secret Service to investigate the incident. Special agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are also on the scene, the bureau posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The gunfire 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, recently pleaded not guilty<\/a>to charges that he attempted to kill Trump and remains in federal custody.<\/p>\n

A little more than a week later, 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 U.S. District Court in connection with the May 4 shooting. A teenage bystander was wounded in that incident.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Marc Santia is an investigative correspondent for MS NOW.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Carol Leonnig is a senior investigative reporter with MS NOW. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hayley Meissner is the senior producer for MS NOW’s Breaking News and Blogs team.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May. 24, 2026, 8:22 AM EDT U.S. Secret Service officers shot a man after he opened fire at a security checkpoint outside the White House on Saturday evening, the Secret Service said in a statement. The gunman, who had previous encounters with the Secret Service, was taken to a hospital, where he later died, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}