Suspect Killed Following Shooting Near White House

Police respond to shooting near White House (CNN)

The sound of gunfire was reported near the White House on the evening of May 23. Secret Service agents came onto the North Lawn with weapons drawn, and the press corps was made to run for the James S. Brady briefing room. Reporters on the grounds described what sounded like dozens of rounds; an NBC team put the count at 20 to 30, around 6 p.m. The Secret Service said in a statement that a man, identified by NBC News as 21-year-old Nesire Best of Maryland, approached the checkpoint at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, pulled a gun from a bag and opened fire on officers, who returned fire and shot him; he was taken to a hospital, where he died. Officials told NBC that Best was known to local law enforcement and had a history of mental health concerns.

A second person, a bystander, was also shot and is in critical condition. FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau was on the scene supporting the Secret Service. The White House went into lockdown; it was lifted at 6:46 p.m.

The Secret Service has said it does not know who fired the round that struck the bystander, whether it came from Best or from the officers who returned fire. Law enforcement sources put the exchange at somewhere between 15 and 30 rounds. The account that the man fired first rests, for now, on the agency's own telling of a shooting it carried out, and the question of how many of those rounds were the Secret Service's, and whether one of them struck the bystander, has not been answered. The President, who was in the building, is reported safe.

Trump was in Washington for the shooting. He had announced Friday that he would skip his son Don Jr.’s wedding in the Bahamas to stay at the White House, a decision reportedly tied to the Iran negotiations, and hours before the gunfire he repeated the claim that the regime was close to a deal to end the war with Iran. This makes three scares since late April: the Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, the Washington Monument shooting two weeks ago, and now this.

Within hours of the April shooting, the regime had already made it useful, citing the danger to argue for its $400 million White House ballroom and the bunker that comes along with it.

We do not yet know Best's motive, who fired the round that struck the bystander, or whether any round reached the complex itself.

This is a developing story. We will update as details are confirmed.

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