List of White House security breaches
Extensive measures are used to protect the White House as the official residence (Executive Residence) and office space (West Wing) of the President of the United States, and grounds. Security is primarily provided by the United States Secret Service. Despite security measures such as a fence, there have been some people who have managed to gain unauthorized access to the White House.
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The majority of White House intruders have been "pranksters or harmless people with mental illnesses".[1]
History
Until the late 19th century, the White House maintained an open door policy with the public having access to the corridors and lobbies of the building. Lobbyists for example could wait in the hallways of the building to petition the president. This became a significant problem by the time of the Lincoln Administration, which saw the building regularly filled with people "on all conceivable errands, for all imaginable purposes." Some would gain access by climbing through windows. While Lincoln was to begin with adamant about the importance of speaking to regular people, it grew excessive and the White House began to restrict visiting hours for the public to a twice weekly slot. Lincoln had the layout of the building adjusted so he could go for meals without navigating the public hallways.[2] The general open-door policy remained until around the time of the Cleveland presidency in the 1880s, and the grounds themselves were open until the Coolidge presidency in the 1920s.[3] After the Second World War, public access to the White House grounds became increasingly restricted, with the visitor office providing scheduled tours to a limited area of the building.[4][5]
Various barriers to prevent unwanted access to the White House have existed since the time of Thomas Jefferson, who had a wooden barrier constructed in the early 19th century. An iron fence was constructed in 1819, and portions of this early barrier still exist. During the mid-1990s, the fence was expanded by one block to move traffic farther from the White House to prevent damage from any car bomb.[6] Since the September 11 attacks, the restricted airspace above the White House has been expanded and better enforced.[7] Temporary barriers are also regularly installed during inaugurations. During the George Floyd protests and 2020 elections, a new temporary fence was installed, with concrete barriers to prevent vehicles. The fence was 13 ft tall, twice the height of the previous.[8][3][9]
Breaches
Into the White House
Note that the White House maintained a broadly open door policy until the 1880s.
- August 24, 1814 – During the War of 1812, the British Army raided and set fire to the White House, along with the Capitol and many other Washington D.C. structures. The reconstruction took until 1817.
- 1891 - A man climbed onto the South Portico and accessed the Red Room. He was restrained by guards, aided by Benjamin Harrison.[10]
- c.1901-09 - A man in a top hat informed security that he had a meeting with the president, and was invited into the Red Room. After a few minutes of conversation, Theodore Roosevelt instructed the secret service to "Get this crank out of here". He was searched and found to be carrying a pistol.[11]
- April 13, 1912 – Michael Winter was arrested after he forced his way into the White House to see William Howard Taft.[12]
- c.1929-33 - An elderly Iowan tourist with a briefcase walked past security unchallenged. "...he made himself at home, wandering quietly from room to room examining the pictures and furnishings with lively interest." He was eventually confronted and searched, the briefcase simply containing tourist books and maps.[13]
- c.1929-33 - During a dinner between Herbert Hoover and Louis B. Mayer, a stranger walked in from the street past security and demanded an appointment with the president. He was pushed down by a butler.[13]
- c.1940-45 - "For a lark", a man snuck past security to enter the White House. The lights were out as Franklin D Roosevelt and his family were watching a movie. After the film ended, he got the president's autograph before being escorted from the premises. James Roosevelt's account of the incident was described in Margaret Truman's book The President's House.[14]
- January 20, 1985 – Robert Latta gained access to the White House by following the 33 members of the Marine Band past security. While carrying an overnight bag, he was able to wander around the Executive Residence for 14 minutes but was apprehended by Secret Service agents.[15]
- November 24, 2009 – Carlos Allen, Michaele Salahi, and Tareq Salahi showed up uninvited to a state dinner for then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.[16][17]
- September 19, 2014 – Omar Gonzalez jumped the fence from the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the White House and entered through the North Portico doors.[18] Upon entering he overpowered a Secret Service officer and ran through most of the main floor before he was tackled by a counter-assault agent.[19]
- September 20, 2020 – Actress Maria Bakalova, portraying her character Tutar during filming for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, gained access to the White House by shadowing the OAN journalist Chanel Rion. She attended a Donald Trump speech and was able to speak with Donald Trump Jr. The footage from the incident was not used in the film proper, but shared online later.[20]
Onto the grounds
Note that the grounds were usually open to the public until the 1920s.
- February 17, 1974 – Robert K. Preston, hovered a stolen Bell UH-1B Iroquois helicopter above the grounds and was forced to land. It is unknown if he planned to enter the residence.[21][22]
- December 25, 1974 – Marshall H. Fields crashed a Chevrolet Impala through the Northwest Gate of the White House complex. He drove up to the North Portico and delayed his arrest for hours by claiming to possess explosives- though they were later discovered to be flares.[23]
- November 26, 1975 into 1976 – Gerald B. Gainous climbed the White House fence four times over a period of a year during the Gerald Ford administration. At one point he gained access to the grounds where he approached Susan Ford, the daughter of the president, before being arrested.[24]
- July 27, 1976 – Chester Plummer, scaled the White House fence, armed with a piece of pipe.[25] While advancing towards the White House, he was ordered to stop by a Secret Service officer. After ignoring the order,[26] he was shot by a rookie officer,[27] and died later in the hospital from his wounds; he was the first known shooting victim on White House grounds.[28]
- October 4, 1978 – Anthony Henry, dressed in a white karate outfit made his way onto the White House lawn armed with knives and was arrested.[29]
- August 21, 1986 – Rosita Bourbon, scaled the northeast fence of the White House with a makeshift ladder and was arrested shortly afterwards.[30][31]
- November 21, 1987 – Mike Davis, an unarmed man scaled a White House fence and made it to near the foot of a stairway that leads to the West Wing where President Reagan's office was before being arrested.[32]
- September 12, 1994 – Frank Eugene Corder, crashed a stolen Cessna 150 onto the South Lawn of the White House, apparently trying to hit the building. He was the only person killed in the incident.[33]
- May 24, 1995 – Leland William Modjeski, wearing a business suit and carrying an unloaded .38-caliber revolver, was shot on the White House grounds after scaling the fence. Authorities doubted that he intended to harm the president and he appeared to have psychiatric problems.[1]
- December 4, 2005 – Shawn A. Cox, of Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, was immediately captured by Secret Service agents after scaling the White House fence.[34][35] Cox believed that Chelsea Clinton still lived at the White House "and that he was destined to marry her". Cox was sent to the St. Elizabeth's psychiatric hospital; a court-ordered psychiatric report found that he was "grossly psychotic and manic".[35]
- February–April 2006 – Brian Lee Patterson, jumped the White House fence a total of four times.[36][37]
- October 13, 2006 – Alexis Janicki, 24, of Independence, Missouri, an Iraq War veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, was arrested after climbing over the fence while in possession of marijuana.[38]
- March 16, 2007 – Catalino Lucas Diaz, scaled the fence with a package and threatened officers that he had a bomb. Catalino was arrested after determining that he had no dangerous weapon.[39][40]
- June 9, 2009 – Pamela Morgan, jumped the fence onto the northeast corner of the grounds while carrying a backpack. Morgan was arrested immediately and her backpack later searched and found to contain nothing dangerous.[41]
- March 30, 2014 – Unidentified male, caught and arrested after climbing over the fence.[42]
- August 7, 2014 – An unknown toddler squeezed through the fence, and was returned to his parents.[43]
- September 11, 2014 – Jeffrey Grossman, 26, of Rensselaer, New York, scaled the fence and entered the North Lawn while carrying a Pikachu doll and wearing a Pikachu hat; he was apprehended by Secret Service agents.[44][45] Grossman did not intend to inflict harm; he suffered from schizophrenia.[46] After being arrested, he was taken to George Washington University Hospital for mental health observation.[44]
- October 22, 2014 – Dominic Adesanya, formerly of Bel Air, Maryland, jumped the fence onto the north lawn and was quickly taken down by two security dogs while punching and kicking them before being arrested by the Secret Service. He was later ordered by a judge to a mental health facility.[47][48] Adesanya, who had twice jumped the White House fence in July 2014, pleaded guilty in April 2015 to entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds and was sentenced in July 2015 to time served and one year of supervised release. Adesanya's lawyer said that he suffered from schizophrenia.[49]
- November 26, 2015 – Joseph Anthony Caputo, 22, of Stamford, Connecticut, was arrested by Secret Service agents almost immediately after jumping over a White House fence as the first family was inside celebrating Thanksgiving.[50][51] Caputo had left a suicide note and will and apparently had intended to die.[52] In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Caputo pleaded guilty to one federal misdemeanor count of illegal entry of restricted grounds and was sentenced to three years' probation with various conditions.[53]
- March 10, 2017 – A man carrying a backpack, later identified as Jonathan Tuan Tran, 26, of Milpitas, California, was arrested after jumping the White House fence, coming within steps of the mansion. Court papers charged Tran with "entering or remaining in restricted grounds while using or carrying a dangerous weapon" and stated that he had two cans of mace in his possession at the time of the incident.[54][55]
- October 18, 2017 – Curtis Combs, 36, of Somerset, Kentucky, jumped a concrete barrier on the outer perimeter of the south grounds of the White House complex and was quickly arrested. He was dressed in a Pikachu suit.[56]
- November 19, 2017 – Victor Merswin, 24, of Stafford, Virginia, jumped the bike rack and was in the process of climbing over the first security fence when he was captured and arrested by Secret Service Officers.[57]
Into restricted airspace
- May 12, 2005- A student pilot flying a small Cessna 150 violated airspace restrictions, prompting mass evacuations throughout the White House and US Capitol. Afterwards, two F-16 Fighter jets and a Black Hawk Helicopter made the plane land at a small airport nearby.
- August 25, 2009 - A student pilot accidentally violates restricted airspace and is escorted to a nearby airport by a helicopter.[58]
- November 26, 2019 - The White House was placed on lockdown for 30 minutes after a small aircraft intruded on restricted airspace. Fighter jets were scrambled, before it was determined that the aircraft was not hostile.[59]
Non-trespassing incidents
- February 1974 – Samuel Byck, planned to hijack a plane and fly it into the White House in an assassination attempt. He was wounded by two rounds that penetrated the aircraft door's window. He committed suicide by shooting himself in the head before police could enter the aircraft.[60]
- December 1, 1976 – Steven B. Williams, tried unsuccessfully to crash his truck through the now reinforced steel gates (strengthened after the Marshall Fields incident) and was arrested.[61]
- March 3, 1984 – David Mahonski, after previously being warned to stay away from the White House for making threats against the president, was noticed in front of the south grounds of the White House by security agents who then approached him. He pulled a sawed-off shotgun from beneath his coat, and one of the agents shot him in the arm with a revolver. He was subsequently arrested.[62]
- March 15, 1985 – Chester Ramsey, was caught and arrested by Secret Service agents while trying to climb over the fence.[63]
- October 29, 1994 – Francisco Martin Duran, took a semi-automatic rifle and fired 29 rounds at the White House before being tackled to the ground and arrested.[64]
- February 8, 2001 – Robert W. Pickett, of Evansville, Indiana, an accountant who had been fired from the IRS thirteen years earlier, fired shots outside the White House fence and was then shot in the knee and arrested by Secret Service agents. Police subsequently found a suicide letter to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.[65]
- November 11, 2011 – Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was taken into custody in Indiana, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) in connection with bullets fired near the White House- at least two of which impacted- on Constitution Avenue, NW (near The Ellipse and the closed Washington Monument), at least one of which was stopped by bullet-proof glass, the other having hit the exterior; it is unknown whether the White House was a target or was even involved – the President and First Lady were in Hawaii for the APEC Summit meeting at the time. A suspect was seen fleeing into Virginia from the 23rd Street, NW, entrance to the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge from an abandoned car left near there.[66]
- June 9, 2013 – Joseph Clifford Reel, caused a driverless jeep to speed down Pennsylvania Avenue and eventually crash into the gate as a diversion so he could spray paint the side of the White House. Reel was eventually arrested in the north courtyard and sentenced to 3 years in prison.[67]
- March 2, 2015 – An unidentified man dressed in a construction suit tried to enter the White House grounds through the gate at Pennsylvania Avenue near East Executive Avenue in the early morning. He was stopped by Uniformed Division officers and taken into custody.[68]
- May 20, 2016 – The 2016 White House shooting occurred when Jesse Olivieri attacked the White House security checkpoint. The Secret Service shot and arrested him. After the incident, Secret Service authorities closed the White House for 45 minutes and also blocked nearby streets. Primary investigations showed that there is no connection with terrorists.[69]
- March 18, 2017 – A man, yet to be identified, jumped over a bicycle rack on Pennsylvania Avenue, and was subsequently arrested.[70][71]
- July 2017 — The U.S. Secret Service arrested Travis Reinking in 2017 for being in a "restricted area" near the White House. Secret Service reported, "[Reinking] wanted to set up a meeting with the president." On April 22, 2018 Reinking was identified as the primary subject in the Nashville Waffle House shooting. Due to the 2017 White House arrest, Illinois police seized four weapons belonging to Reinking, including the AR-15 rifle used at the Nashville shooting. It is believed that the weapons were later retrieved by Reinking's father, and returned to his son sometime prior to April 22, 2018.[72] Reinking was at large for over 24 hours before he was found and arrested on April 23, 2018, for the shooting at the Waffle House the previous day which killed four.
- August 10, 2020 — Myron Berryman, a 51 year old man from Maryland was shot by a Secret Service officer near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks away from the White House after telling the officer he was armed and ran towards the officer with his hand in his pocket. The suspect who was unarmed was arrested and taken to a hospital where he was charged with assault. The President was holding a press briefing on the COVID 19 pandemic and was temporarily escorted from the briefing room by the Secret Service.[73][74][75]
Site layout and floor plans
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See also
References
- Stephen Labaton (May 25, 1995). "Officials Doubt Intruder Meant President Harm". The New York Times.
- Holzer, Harold. "Abraham Lincoln's White House". WHHA (en-US). Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- "White House Gets Taller, Tougher Fence to Stop Intruders | Voice of America - English". www.voanews.com. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- Copeland, George H (February 8, 1948). "Doing the Capitol: Visitors Flock to Washington to Watch Congress in Action and See the Sights". The New York Times.
- "Public Report of the White House Security Review", chapter 4, "The Evolution of Presidential Security" (1995).
- "White House Secure". Sun Sentinel. May 25, 1995. Retrieved November 29, 2009.
The radar on the White House roof has been upgraded to protect against kamikaze planes, Pennsylvania Avenue has been blocked to foil car bombers – and still a gunman can clamber over the wrought-iron fence and sprint to within 50 feet of the president's windows. The response from the men and women who guard the White House: Unless you want to turn the president's house into a walled-off fortress, there just isn't much you can do about "jumpers" – except try to stop them on the lawn.
- MacNamee, Garreth. "White House lockdown: Restrictions lifted after initial alert caused by plane entering restricted airspace". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- Klein, Betsy (June 4, 2020). "White House fortifies security perimeter ahead of continued protests". CNN Politics. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- "White House building 'non-scalable' fence as Washington DC prepares for election protests". The Independent. November 2, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- "Guarding the White House". WHHA (en-US). Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- "Friday's White House Intruder Was Far From the First". The Atlantic. September 22, 2014.
- "Intruder in White House Is Arrested After Forcing His Way in to See Taft". The New York Times. April 13, 1912. Retrieved February 5, 2009.
- Journal, George E. Condon Jr , National (September 22, 2014). "Friday's White House Intruder Was Far From the First". The Atlantic. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- "The 7 Weirdest White House Security Breaches". Intelligencer. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- Clarity, James F., and Warren Weaver Jr. "Briefing: Disavowal of Intruder". The New York Times January 31, 1985.
- "Feds: Couple crashed Obama's state dinner". CNN. November 26, 2009. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
- Cristina Corbin (November 26, 2009). "Who Are the White House Party Crashers?". Fox News Channel.
- Shear, Michael D.; Steve Kenny (September 20, 2014). "Breach Prompts Review of White House Security". The New York Times. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
- Leonnig, Carol D. (September 29, 2014). "White House fence-jumper made it far deeper into building than previously known". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
- "Watch Borat's "daughter" infiltrate White House in new clip". NME | Music, Film, TV, Gaming & Pop Culture News. October 23, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- "White House Security Review – Public Report". Federation of American Scientists.
- Freeze, Christopher. "The Time a Stolen Helicopter Landed on the White House Lawn – Robert Preston's wild ride". Air & Space. Smithsonian. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
- AP. "Gate-Crasher Stirs Worry About Security at the White House". Google News. The Argus-Press. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
- "Young Man Again Caught Scaling White House Fence". Reading Eagle. UPI. August 16, 1976. p. 6. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
- U.S. News & World Report. 1976 https://books.google.com/books?id=jlsnAQAAIAAJ. Missing or empty
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(help) - Philip H. Melanson (2005). The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency. Basic Books. pp. 139–. ISBN 978-0-7867-1617-3.
- "Dead Intruder Had History of Rash Behavior", The Miami News, July 27, 1976, p. 3A,
- Perlstein, Rick, "Culture of Fear: Miriam Carey's Tragedy, and Our Own", The Nation, October 4, 2013. Retrieved October 6, 2013
- "Man with knife holds police at bay on white house lawn". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. October 4, 1978. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- "An Arrest at White House". The New York Times. August 22, 1986. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- "White House Intruder Arrested". Los Angeles Times. August 21, 1986. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- "Officers Arrest a Man Outside White House". The New York Times. November 22, 1987. Retrieved February 5, 2009.
- Pear, Robert (September 13, 1994). "Crash at the White House: The Pilot; Friends Depict Loner With Unraveling Life". The New York Times.
- "Trespasser Scales White House Fence". Associated Press. December 5, 2005.
- "White House Fence Jumper Was Looking for Chelsea Clinton". Fox News. Associated Press. December 9, 2005.
- "Intruder arrested on White House grounds". CNN. April 10, 2006. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- "Man Apprehended on White House Grounds". NBC News. April 9, 2006. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- Ben Paynter (May 8, 2007). "Oval Office Ambush: With war memories torturing him, Alexis Janicki tried to bust his way into the White House". Kansas City Pitch.
- "66-year-old man leaps White House fence". USA Today. March 16, 2007. Retrieved February 1, 2009.
- "66-Year-Old Man Leaps White House Fence". The Washington Post. Associated Press. March 16, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- "Fence-jumper immediately apprehended at White House". The Washington Times. June 9, 2009. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- "Official: Man scaled White House fence, arrested". USA Today. March 30, 2014. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
- "Toddler caught sneaking through White House fence". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
- Kenneth C. Crowe II (September 16, 2014). "He wanted better health care: Kin: Area man arrested at White House is mentally ill". Times Union.
- Danielle Sanzone. "Rensselaer man detained after trying to reach president". The Record. Troy, N.Y.
- Vince Pecoraro (October 2, 2014). "Chatham graduate scales White House fence in Sept". The Register Star. Hudson, N.Y.
- "Accused White House Fence-Jumper Dominic Adesanya Shouts in Court". NBC News. October 27, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- "White House jumper Dominic Adesanya ordered by judge to mental health facility". The Washington Post. October 27, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- Marina di Marzo, "Dominic Adesanya, White House Fence Jumper, Sentenced", WRC-TV (July 2, 2015).
- Spencer S. Hsu, "Thanksgiving White House fence jumper released with restrictions until Jan. 12", The Washington Post (November 27, 2015).
- Tal Kopan, "White House fence jumper sent for psychiatric examination", CNN (November 29, 2015).
- Staff and wire reports, "Stamford man who hurdled White House fence intended to die" (November 27, 2015).
-
- Spencer S. Hsu, "Conn. man who jumped White House fence draped in American flag pleads guilty", The Washington Post (September 12, 2017).
- Spencer S. Hsu, "Conn. man who jumped White House fence draped in U.S. flag sentenced to 3 yrs. probation", The Washington Post (January 11, 2017).
- Weber, Joseph (March 11, 2017). "Suspected White House fence jumper charged with carrying 'dangerous weapon,' seen behind mansion column". Fox News. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
- Stephenson, Emily (March 12, 2017). "Man faces 10-year sentence after scaling White House fence". Reuters.
- Gray, Noah (October 19, 2017). "Gotta catch 'em all: Secret Service nabs Pikachu-dressed man at WH". CNN. Archived from the original on October 19, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
- "5 Police: Va. man arrested after trying to jump White House security barrier". FOX News 11. November 19, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
- "Plane Enters Secure Airspace 2nd Time". NBC4 Washington. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- Breuninger, Kevin (November 26, 2019). "White House lifts lockdown after airspace violation was reported". CNBC. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- Hunter, Al (April 10, 2014). "The Plots to Kill Richard Nixon from the Sky, Part 2". The Weekly View. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
- "5 White House 'Attacks' That Didn't End in the Suspects Getting Killed". The Huffington Post. October 4, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- Rasky, Susan F. (March 16, 1984). "Man with a loaded shotgun is shot outside White House". New York Times. Retrieved January 18, 2018
- "White House Intruder Thwarted". Los Angeles Times. March 15, 1985. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- Schmitt, Eric (October 30, 1994). "Gunman Shoots at White House From Sidewalk". The New York Times. Retrieved February 5, 2009.
-
- Sanger, David E. (February 8, 2001). "Officer Shoots Armed Man Near White House Fence". The New York Times. Retrieved February 5, 2009.
- "Authorities find suicide notes left by White House gunman", CNN (February 8, 2001).
- Grass, Michael (November 16, 2011). "Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez Arrested: Alleged White House Shooter In Custody In Pennsylvania". The Huffington Post.
- Hermann, Peter (January 10, 2014). "Ohio man sentenced to 3 years in prison for launching driverless Jeep at White House". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- "White House intruder arrested". CBS 19. March 2, 2015. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
- Shapiro, Emily; Caplan, David (May 22, 2016). "Man Shot by Secret Service Near White House Remains in Critical Condition". ABC News. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
- Uria, Daniel (March 18, 2017). "Pedestrian apprehended for jumping barrier outside White House". UPI. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
- Scott, Eugene (March 18, 2017). "Man arrested outside White House after jumping bike rack". CNN. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
- Boucher, Dave (April 22, 2018). "Waffle House shooting: Suspect Travis Reinking previously arrested outside White House". USA Today. Retrieved April 22, 2018.
- Trump abruptly escorted from briefing after shooting near WH Associated Press
- "Secret Service escorts Trump from briefing room after shooting outside White House". ABC News. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/11/shooting-near-white-house-under-review-suspect-did-not-have-gun/3342734001/
Further reading
- "White House Once a Place That 'Belonged' to Public". The New York Times, May 9, 1970. p. 9.
- Public Security Report, Federation of American Scientists
- A history of White House security