Share and Follow
In brief
- The suspect, 21-year-old Nasire Best, was shot dead after he opened fire on a White House checkpoint on Saturday night.
- A bystander was injured and remains in a serious but stable condition. It’s unclear how they were shot.
A bystander remains in serious but stable condition after being hit by gunfire when a man opened fire on a checkpoint near the White House.
The US Secret Service reported that the bystander, whose identity has not been disclosed, sustained a gunshot wound that is not deemed life-threatening. Details about how the bystander was injured remain unclear.
Few additional details have been shared regarding the incident, which occurred early Saturday evening, local time. According to the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, the suspect, identified as 21-year-old Nasire Best, fired shots at a White House security checkpoint, prompting Secret Service officers to return fire.
Nasire Best was later declared dead at a hospital.
At the time of the shooting, US President Donald Trump was present in the White House.
It was the third shooting near the president in the past month, after a man stormed the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April armed with guns and knives, and Secret Service officers shot and wounded a man who fired at them earlier this month near the Washington Monument.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said the suspect in Saturday’s shooting had a “possible obsession with our Country’s most cherished structure”.
He also used the shooting to promote the ballroom he is seeking to build on the site of the White House’s former East Wing, saying the shooting “goes to show how important it is, for all future Presidents, to get, what will be, the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built in Washington, D.C”.
Trump is asking Congress for US$1 billion ($1.4 billion) for security additions for the White House campus, including the ballroom.
Best had a previous run-in with law enforcement near the White House, according to District of Columbia court records. He was arrested last July for trying to enter White House grounds near a different checkpoint. He failed to heed officers’ commands to stop, claimed to be Jesus Christ and said he wanted to be arrested.
Best was a track and field athlete at Dundalk High School in Baltimore, from which he graduated in 2023.
A woman who identified herself as Best’s mother told The Washington Post that she learned about the shooting on social media and was in disbelief.
She said her son “was never violent, regardless of what people are posting”.
For the latest from SBS News, download our app and subscribe to our newsletter.