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The White House was locked down for a short time after a person was shot by a law enforcement officer close to the Washington Monument.
Secret Service agents attended the scene on Monday afternoon near the National Mall and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The president, who was giving a speech to small business leaders inside the White House at the time, was not interrupted during the incident.
Journalists outside the building were briefly ushered into the briefing room.
Secret Service deputy director Matthew Quinn said that around 3.30pm, plainclothes officers saw the man, who appeared to have a weapon. After trying to approach him, he fled, and they opened fire.
A child in the area was hit by gunfire as well and is receiving treatment for non-life-threatening injuries.
Security officers have been on alert following the recent shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner attended by the US president, which resulted in a man being arrested and charged.
The Secret Service said in a statement: ‘US Secret Service personnel are on the scene of an officer-involved shooting at 15th Street and Independence Avenue in Washington, DC.
‘One individual was shot by law enforcement; their condition is currently unknown.’
The DC police department said the scene has been secured, and a young man was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, according to the emergency services.
It comes after a man opened fire during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last week, armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.
The suspect has been identified as Cole Thomas Allen, 31, from Torrance, California.
‘Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial, he wrote after apologising for anyone else he put in danger.
‘I’m not a schoolkid blown up, or a child starved, or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration. Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behaviour; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.’
Allen laughed at the ‘insane’ lack of security at the Washington Hilton — saying Iranian agents could have brought even more devastating firepower and ‘no one would have noticed s***.’
The writings, some of which were found in the hotel room where he was staying – the same hotel where the dinner was – didn’t mention the correspondent’s dinner.
One family member who was interviewed by officials said Allen would often reference planning to ‘do something’ to fix the issues in today’s world.
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