Secret Service Releases Update on Shooting That Happened Outside White House | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire, and written by Ryan Saavedra.

    The U.S. Secret Service released a statement on the shooting that occurred on Monday afternoon outside the White House, saying that the suspect told authorities that he had a weapon and that he motioned as if he was about to "fire a weapon."

    "At approximately 5:53 PM today, a 51 year old male approached a U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division officer who was standing at his post on the comer of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. near the White House Complex," the Secret Service said in a statement. "The suspect approached the officer and told the officer he had a weapon. 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 about to fire a weapon. The Secret Service officer discharged his weapon striking the individual in the torso."

    "Officers immediately rendered first aid to the suspect and D.C. Fire and EMS were called to the scene," the statement continued. "Both the suspect and the officer were transported to local hospitals. The White House Complex was not breached during the incident and no Secret Service protectees were ever in danger."

    The Secret Service said that an investigation was ongoing and that the Metropolitan Police Department was involved.

    The incident happened during a White House press briefing where Secret Service entered the room to remove the president while the situation was being assessed.

    Trump later returned to the room where he was asked by a reporter, "Are you rattled by this at all, Mr. President?"

    "Do I seem rattled?" Trump responded. "It's unfortunate that this is a world, but the world's always been a dangerous place. It's not something that's unique. The world has been ... You look back over the centuries. The world has been a dangerous place, very dangerous place, and it will continue, I guess, for a period of time."

    "I feel very safe with Secret Service. They're fantastic people. They're the best of the best and they're highly trained," Trump continued. "I don't know if anybody got to walk outside, but there were a lot of terrific looking people ready to go if something was necessary, people at the highest level of law enforcement. There's nobody like these people. So they just wanted me to step aside for a little while just to make sure that everything was cleared outside because it was right in this area."

    "Why did you come back, Mr. President?" the reporter pressed. "What made you decide to come back and continue the briefing?"

    "Well, I didn't even think about not coming back," Trump responded. "I said, 'Am I able to go back?' And they said, 'You'd have to wait a little while.' I waited a little while, as you know, in the Oval Office area. And I said, 'Can I get back now?' And they said, 'Yes.' And they have a lot of fortification outside just in case, but it was one person. Okay?"