WASHINGTON – A man kicked and wounded by a secret service officer, who asked President Donald Trump to be abruptly escorted out of a briefing room during a televised conference, had threatened to kill people in the White House, two officials known with the case said Tuesday.
The man, Myron Basil Berryman, 51, of Forestville, Md., Was arrested on a charge of assault by a law enforcement officer, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. He remained hospitalized Tuesday with critical injuries, according to authorities.
The officials, who were informed about the investigation, could not publicly discuss the ongoing probe and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Berryman had approached the uniformed officer just before 6 a.m. Monday on the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, just blocks from the White House, and told the officer he had a weapon, said Tom Sullivan’s Chief Uniformed Division Chief. He then moved aggressively towards the officer and appeared ready to shoot before the officer shot him once, Sullivan said.
A police report obtained by the AP says Berryman “explained to officer that he had gun.”
Sullivan would not answer questions Monday night about whether the man had in fact been armed, but no weapon was found on the scene, officials said.
Before the shooting, Berryman had shouted that he would kill people, according to officials familiar with the case.
Sullivan said after the man told the officer he had a weapon, he turned around and “walked aggressively toward the officer, and in a drawing motion pulled an object out of his clothing,” Sullivan said. The suspect “then crawled into the shooter’s posture as if firing a weapon” before the officer shot the man once in the torso, he said.
The White House complex was not breached and no one under the protection of secret services was in danger, Sullivan said. Law enforcement officials were still trying to determine a motive and authorities were investigating whether the man had a history of mental illness.
Trump had just started a coronavirus briefing when a US Secret Service agent escorted him out of the briefing room. The president returned minutes later, saying there had been a “shooting party” outside the White House that was “under control.”
“There was an actual shooting and someone was taken to the hospital,” Trump said. The president said law enforcement had fired the shooter and that he believed the individual who was shot was armed. “It was the suspect who was shot,” he said.
Trump said the agent had escorted him to the Oval Office. The White House was placed on lockdown after the incident.
Both the suspect and the officer were taken to the hospital. Sullivan did not release any information about the officer and would not answer questions at a news conference late near the scene.
An internal review of the shooting by the Secret Service was underway, and the Metropolitan Police Department is also investigating a standard protocol.
At the White House, Trump praised Secret Service personnel for their work in keeping him safe. Asked if he was shocked by the incident, Trump asked reporters, ‘I do not know. Do I like rattling? ‘
