WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. Secret Service officer shot a man with a gun who approached a checkpoint Friday afternoon outside the White House and refused to drop his weapon, the Secret Service said.
The White House was briefly placed on a security alert after the shooting, which happened within view of sightseers as sidewalks were crowded with families, school groups and government workers.
The armed man approached the checkpoint on E Street shortly after 3 p.m., and the officer repeatedly ordered the man to drop his gun. The man ignored those commands, according to a statement from David Iacovetti, a Secret Service deputy assistant director.
The officer fired one shot at the man, who was taken to a hospital for treatment, and the gun was recovered at the scene, Iacovetti said.
The man was in critical condition when he was transported, a D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman said.
President Barack Obama was away playing golf at the time, but Vice President Joe Biden was in the White House complex and was secured during the lockdown, his office said. The lockdown was lifted about an hour after the shooting.
The gunman never made it inside the White House complex, and no one else was injured, the Secret Service said.
Federal agents found ammunition inside a Toyota sedan, parked nearby on Constitution Avenue, that the gunman was believed to have driven, a U.S. law enforcement official said, speaking on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to release the information.
Sightseer Jenna Noelle, of Austin, Texas, said she had just taken a photo of the White House when she noticed a man harassing an agent.
Then, "as we were walking away we heard a shot fired, then some people started running away and agents had guns and were evacuating people."
"I had a panic attack," she added. "I'm doing OK now, but it was pretty freaky to be right there a second before it happened. Not really the experience we wanted."
Community activist Akil Patterson said he heard a single gunshot while waiting in a security line. Within seconds, a security guard shouted to drop to the ground, and then he was evacuated to the street.
Patterson said he was at the White House to get a presidential award for his work with Baltimore teens.
He said his community work aims to "get rid of the notion that gun violence is the answer."