On Monday afternoon, a man was shot by the Secret Service on the National Mall near the Washington Monument. There was eventually a press briefing by the Secret Service and we learned that the man had been spotted by a plain-clothes agent patrolling the outer perimeter of the White House. That agent had identified a gun and called in cars with uniformed secret service agents.
None of what happened was captured on video but allegedly the man with the gun saw he was being followed by cops and ran. He also pulled his weapon and fired at the Secret Service. They fired back and he was struck more than once. He was arrested and taken to a hospital. In the crossfire, a 15-year-old bystander was also hit but his injuries were not life-threatening.
What was very vague on Monday was the shooter’s possible motive. The Secret Service mentioned that the Vice President’s motorcade had passed by the area just moments before the shooting. That may even have been why they were patrolling that spot about 3/4 of a mile from the White House. But there’s not suggestion that the man pulled his gun when the motorcade passed.
Today we’re learning a bit more from U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro about the suspect, including his name. Also, the shooter said some things in the ambulance on the way to the hospital that might be revealing.
“One of the things that he said on the way to the hospital was, ‘F the White House,’ and ‘Kill me, kill me, kill me’ — three times,” Pirro said in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas on Tuesday. “But he was very clear, ‘F the White House.'”…
Pirro said she intends to charge the suspect, whom she identified as Michael Marx, with assault against a federal officer.
The 45-year-old suspect has a Texas driver’s license and no obvious connection to Washington, and authorities are working to learn why he was in the city, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
Authorities are executing search warrants on his phone, digital media and other locations to try and determine if he posed any threat to specific individuals or entities, including President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, sources said.
I’m getting a “suicide by cop” vibe from all of this. That may be wrong and there could be other explanations, but if it’s accurate that he pulled his gun and fired at uniformed officers, that seems to rule out most of the innocent possibilities. You just don’t do something like that because you accidentally brought your gun into DC without a concealed carry permit.
On the other hand, someone looking to make some kind of grand statement near the White House might have planned ahead an had some kind of manifesto on them or posted online. So far, Pirro hasn’t suggested anything like that has turned up. What she did say, speaking more generally, was that people looking to make a statement through violence seemed to see Washington, DC as a stage for them to do it.
“People think that by coming to the nation’s capital, they can really make put an emphasis on their political statement,” Pirro told ABC News. “I don’t like that the nation’s capital is being used as the venue or the context within which people want to practice their political violence.”
I’ve seen a Facebook page which may belong to the shooter. I’m not going to link it because it hasn’t been confirmed yet, but the page I saw contained some fairly normal posts about work and hanging out with friends interspersed with some pretty angry posts about various conservatives. If it is the same guy, he definitely had strong opinions but that’s not exactly unusual online.
Given that investigators are now looking into his phone, I suspect we’ll get more about his motive and movements fairly soon. For now I think we can say this could turn out to be another deranged person committed to political violence, but other possibilities haven’t been ruled out.
Finally, there’s an unrelated story out today which seems relevant because it involves yet another person looking to kill the president.
An employee of the Federal Aviation Administration was set to appear in federal court on Tuesday on charges of threatening to kill President Trump after allegedly using his government-issued work computer for his plans.
The Justice Department accused Dean DelleChiaie, 35, of Nashua, N.H., of using his work computer in January to conduct a series of suspicious searches, including how to smuggle a gun into a federal building, the details of previous assassination attempts against Mr. Trump, and the phrase “I am going to kill Donald John Trump.”…
According to the department, Mr. DelleChiaie made his plans to harm Mr. Trump explicit in April, in an email from his personal account sent to a public White House email address. In it, he wrote: “I, Dean DelleChiaie, am going neutralize/kill you – Donald John Trump – because you decided to kill kids – and say that it was War – when in reality – it is terrorism. God knows your actions and where you belong.”
I’m guessing this refers to the bombing of a school in Iran, but I’m not certain.
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
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