An unarmed 23-year old Baltimore man was arrested Tuesday after jumping a fence at the Treasury Department as President Bush’s motorcade was pulling onto the White House grounds nearby.
The incident caused minor alarm among the president’s security detail.
Mr. Bush remained inside his limousine for two to three minutes, instead of immediately exiting upon arriving outside the Oval Office.
The handful of plainclothes Secret Service agents protecting the president retrieved automatic weapons from their vehicles and took up positions in front of the limousine, facing the South Lawn. The scene, though unusual, was not frantic.
After the brief delay, Mr. Bush emerged from the limousine and walked with aides past the heavily armed agents into the Oval Office. The agents do not normally carry weapons openly.
The president was returning from a trip to the Capitol Hill headquarters of the Republican National Committee, where he thanked campaign staffers for their work and “encouraged them to work hard for John McCain and keep turning out the vote until the final ballot is cast next week,” a White House spokesman said.
The fence jumper was Kevin Peterson, said Secret Service spokesman Darrin Blackford. He was taken for questioning by agents from the Washington field office, and was scheduled to be sent for processing to the Metropolitan Police Department and charged with unlawful entry, Mr. Blackford said. The Secret Service would not say Tuesday afternoon whether he was still in their custody.
Mr. Peterson jumped a fence on the Treasury building’s south side about 11:30 a.m., Mr. Blackford said.
A Washington Times reporter traveling in the president’s motorcade as part of the rotating “protective pool” estimated that Mr. Bush drove through the southeast gate of the White House grounds about that same time.
The southeast gate is less than 50 feet from the Treasury grounds, which are treated by the Secret Service as effectively part of the White House compound. The Secret Service is part of the Treasury Department.
“The subject was immediately apprehended by Secret Service uniformed officers and taken into custody,” Mr. Blackford said.
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