Secret Service boosts White House security ADVERTISING Secret Service boosts White House security WASHINGTON (AP) — The Secret Service chief has stepped-up security outside the White House after a man with a knife who jumped the fence made it into
Secret Service boosts White House security
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Secret Service chief has stepped-up security outside the White House after a man with a knife who jumped the fence made it into the presidential residence before being apprehended, officials said Saturday.
President Barack Obama insisted he still has confidence in the beleaguered agency’s ability to protect him and his family.
Secret Service Director Julia Pierson ordered enhanced officer patrols and surveillance along the North Fence of the compound just after the incident on Friday evening, which triggered a rare evacuation of the White House as well as renewed scrutiny of the Secret Service. The agency said Pierson had also ordered a comprehensive review of what happened.
“The president has full confidence in the Secret Service and is grateful to the men and women who day in and day out protect himself, his family and the White House,” said White House spokesman Frank Benenati. He said the White House expected Pierson’s review to be conducted “with the same professionalism and commitment to duty that we and the American people expect from the U.S. Secret Service.”
The presidential vote of confidence came as the storied agency sought to dispel growing concerns about security at the White House, one of the most heavily protected buildings in the world. Another man was arrested Saturday outside the White House in an unrelated event.
President Barack Obama and his daughters had just left the White House by helicopter on Friday evening when the Secret Service says 42-year-old Omar J. Gonzalez scaled the fence, darting across the lawn and through the unlocked North Portico doors before officers finally tackled him.
“Every day the Secret Service is challenged to ensure security at the White House complex while still allowing public accessibility to a national historical site,” the agency said in a statement. “Although last night the officers showed tremendous restraint and discipline in dealing with this subject, the location of Gonzalez’s arrest is not acceptable.”
Hunt for alleged killer of trooper hits 8 days
CANADENSIS, Pa. (AP) — The suspect in the deadly ambush at a state police barracks in a remote part of northeastern Pennsylvania remained at large for an eighth day Saturday as police appeared to have narrowed their search, largely shutting down the area where he lived with his parents but leaving neighbors with few answers about what’s going on just outside their front doors.
With a helicopter flying overhead, law enforcement officers wearing bulletproof vests and armed with rifles continued their hunt for Eric Frein, 31, now on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
“Our troopers are determined to find him and bring him to justice,” state police spokeswoman Maria Finn said. Police released few details about their search of the heavily wooded community in the Pocono Mountains, saying only that they were exercising extreme caution.
Authorities say Frein used a high-powered rifle to open fire from the woods near a state police barracks on Sept. 12, killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson — a married ex-Marine with two sons — and wounding Trooper Alex Douglass.
Frein — described by authorities as a self-taught survivalist with a grudge against police — has been on the run ever since, authorities said. But some who know him said he has not always played the loner, and the reason for his hatred of police remained a mystery.
Frein belonged to the rifle team at Pocono Mountain High School, and as an adult joined a group that performed military re-enactments based on Cold War battles in Eastern Europe. He even played a small role in a 2007 movie about a concentration camp survivor — earning him a mention in the movie database IMDb — and helped with props and historical references on a documentary about World War I.
“He was a very friendly guy to me,” said Jeremy Hornbaker, who hired him for the documentary. “We left on very good terms.”
Frein’s father, retired Army Maj. E. Michael Frein, told police that he had taught his son to shoot. He “doesn’t miss,” the father told state police.
