Authorities temporarily closed roads Tuesday near the White House after the discovery of a “suspicious package” outside the grounds of the presidential residence.
The U.S. Secret Service, which protects the president, his family and other top officials and visiting
dignitaries, said that officers had established a perimeter, and moved pedestrians outside the White House a safe distance away, as a precaution.
The package appeared to have been found on the north side of the grounds, with some television crews moved off the White House north lawn.
NAN recalls that on March 11, Jonathan Tran, 26, scaled an outer-perimeter fence on the White House complex on Friday night.
Tran climbed a White House fence on Friday night and gained access to the complex’s south grounds before being arrested by the Secret Service.
The service said the incident occurred at about 11:38 p.m.
The intruder was carrying a backpack and purportedly got close to the White House’s south portico residence entrance, near the Washington Monument.
No hazardous material was found inside the backpack, and a subsequent search of the complex grounds resulted in “nothing of concern to security operations,” the Secret Service said.
The agency also said that the suspect had no “previous history” with the agency.
Tran, who reportedly had a California driver’s license, told Secret Service officers that he was at the White House to see Trump.
“No, I am a friend of the President. I have an appointment,” the suspect said when approached by an officer, according to a report released on Saturday by the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department.
Asked how he got there, the suspect told officers: “I jumped the fence”. (dpa/NAN)