Police in Pennsylvania arrested a man today on suspicion of firing a semiautomatic rifle at the White House last week, with one bullet striking a bulletproof window in the residential part of the building.
An undated image of Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, who was arrested in connection with the firing of bullets at the exterior of the White House on Friday.
President Obama, currently on a trip to Australia and Indonesia, was not home during the incident.
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said Pennsylvania police, acting on information provided by the service, arrested Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez at a hotel near Indiana, Pa., at around 12:35 p.m. ET.
“Ortega-Hernandez is currently in the custody of the Pennsylvania State Police,” Donovan said.
The arrest took place hours after the Secret Service reported that a bullet had hit a White House window. “A round was stopped by ballistic glass behind the historic exterior glass,” it said in a statement.
The service also said it had found “one additional round” on the “exterior of the White House,” but did not specify where.
There had been reports of gunfire near the White House on Friday.
“This damage has not been conclusively connected to Friday’s incident, and an assessment of the exterior of the White House is ongoing,” the Secret Service said in a statement.
Gunfire was reported at around 9 p.m. Friday, the Secret Service said. The sound came from around the 1600 block of Constitution Avenue, between the Ellipse and the Washington Monument, about 700 to 800 yards from the White House.
That same night, authorities reported a nearby abandoned car and an AK-47 rifle.
Source: USA Today | David Jackson
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