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Suspect And Bystander Hit In Shooting Near White House
A 21-year-old Maryland man pulled a weapon from a bag and opened fire at a White House security checkpoint Saturday evening, prompting Secret Service agents to return fire. The gunman is dead. A bystander is in critical condition. Trump was in the Oval Office at the time.
Photo by Nils Huenerfuerst
At just after 6 p.m. on Saturday, a man walked up to a security checkpoint outside the White House, pulled a weapon from his bag and started shooting.
Nasire Best, 21, opened fire at a security booth just outside the White House complex at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Secret Service officers returned fire and shot him. He was transported to George Washington University Hospital where he later died.
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A bystander was also struck by gunfire in the incident and is reported in critical condition. No Secret Service personnel were hurt.
Trump was inside the White House the entire time.
At the time of the shooting, Trump was in the Oval Office working with aides. Reporters on the North Lawn heard the shots and were immediately ordered to sprint into the White House Press Briefing Room. The lockdown lasted just under an hour before being lifted.
Here is the detail that makes this more than a security incident.
Best had multiple prior encounters with the Secret Service. He was detained on June 26, 2025, for flagging down agents and making threats, and again on July 10, 2025, for entering restricted areas. Sources described him as having a history of mental health issues.
He had already been on their radar. Twice.
This was the third incidence of gunfire in the vicinity of President Trump in the past month. One month ago, Cole Tomas Allen attempted to breach the White House Correspondents' Dinner armed with multiple firearms and knives. The pattern forming around the security perimeter of this presidency is something law enforcement cannot ignore.
If you have followed this far, here is what Trump himself said about it.
Trump posted on Truth Social thanking Secret Service for their swift and professional action. He alleged the suspect had a violent history and a possible obsession with the White House, and noted the incident was one month removed from the Correspondents' Dinner shooting attempt. He pointed to it as evidence of how critical it is to build what he called the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built in Washington.
House Speaker Mike Johnson commended the federal response, saying the country is grateful for the brave Secret Service agents who took quick and decisive action to protect President Trump, and called on prayers for the victims of the senseless shooting.
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the FBI was on scene supporting the Secret Service.
A man who had already threatened agents twice walked up to the most protected address in America with a weapon in a bag. He pulled it out and started shooting in broad daylight.
The agents stopped it in seconds. A bystander is in a hospital in critical condition. And the question of how someone with two prior Secret Service encounters ended up at that checkpoint with a loaded weapon on a Saturday evening is one that the investigation now has to answer.
Editor's Note: The shooting outside the White House on May 23 is the third security incident near President Trump in a single month. As investigations continue, the pattern of escalating threats against the presidency raises urgent questions about threat assessment, follow-through on prior encounters and what the current security posture around the White House can and cannot prevent.
