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NBC reporter Julie Tsirkin’s viral clip of yesterday’s White House shooting has gone viral online for her unfazed reaction.
The veteran reporter was in front of the White House when a person approached a White House security checkpoint and began firing at officers has died after being shot.
Julie was preparing to film a segment for the broadcaster when shots rang out, and she turned, visibly confused, to her cameraman.
‘What is that?’ she asked, looking around to see what was going on.
Speaking after the incident, she explained: ‘My cameraman, John, and I heard what sounded like 20 to 30 gunshots. We looked at each other and said, ‘What is that?’
‘I ended up running after that. I saw a Secret Service agent come out of a security booth, gun drawn, telling all of us to run inside the press briefing room.’
Online, she was praised for her calm demeanour, with one user affectionately dubbing her a ‘diva’ for keeping her cool.
The US Secret Service said in a statement late on Saturday that, according to a preliminary investigation, the suspect approached a checkpoint shortly after 6pm local time, ‘pulled a weapon from his bag and began firing at posted officers’.
Officers returned fire and hit the suspect – named as Nasire Best, 21, by a law enforcement official – who was transported to an area hospital where he later died, according to the Secret Service.
A bystander was struck and was in a critical condition, but a law enforcement official said it was not clear whether that person was struck by the suspect’s initial bullets or those fired subsequently by officers.
Secret Service said none of its officers was injured and that President Donald Trump – who was at the White House at the time – was not ‘impacted’.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump thanked the Secret Service and law enforcement officers for their ‘swift and professional action’ and said the suspect had a ‘violent history’.
Journalists working at the White House on Saturday reported hearing a series of gunshots and were told to seek shelter inside the press briefing room.
In a post shared on X, the senior White House correspondent for ABC News, Selina Wang, shared dramatic video of the moment she said she heard what ‘sounded like dozens of gunshots’ and ducked for cover.
Writing that she had been performing a task that reporters at the White House do day in and day out – filming themselves on a cellphone, for a social media post – the video shows her speaking for a few seconds about Trump’s statements earlier on Saturday about a potential Iran deal.
As the sounds of gunfire were in the background, her eyes grew wider, and she ducked down in the media tent, which is among those situated in a line along the White House driveway where broadcasters film their reports.
The scene is near where a gunman ambushed two members of the West Virginia National Guard last November.
US Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from her wounds. Andrew Wolfe, then 24, was critically wounded. Rahmanullah Lakanwal has been charged in that incident.