White House a fairly regular phenomenon
the executive mansion.
President Obama’s two daughters were in the White House at that moment.
The man had later called the Secret Service voluntarily and explained that he never intended to breach the White House security with his two-foot-wide “quad copter,” which is a commercially available drone with four propellers.
This incident had renewed calls for tighter regulations of the aerial devices, which are increasingly popular with photographers and amateur aviation enthusiasts.
In October 2014, Dominic Adesanya had jumped the White House fence and was quickly taken down by two security dogs. He was later ordered by a judge to a mental health facility.
In September 2014, a knife-wielding man had scaled the fence of the White House and had ran through a good part of the mansion, which is otherwise protected by the US Secret Service and the US Park Police.
An armed private security contractor in Atlanta had also boarded an elevator with President Obama on September 16, 2014, when the US head of state was visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a briefing on the Ebola Crisis.
Convicted of assault and battery three times, the man was somehow able to slip past the Secret Service. Agents then questioned the man, and discovered his multiple convictions during a database check.
It was surprising that the Secret Service was apparently unaware of the man being in possession of a gun the entire time he was inches away from Obama.
Just four days later on September 20, a military veteran Omar Gonzalez had made it into the White House through an unlocked door after jumping the fence.
The US Secret Service Director Julia Pierson acknowledged before the Congress that the episodes were “unacceptable” and promised they would never happen again. She told Congress lawmakers that 16 fence jumpers had been documented in the past five years.
In a series of reports, the Washington Post had disclosed how the US Secret Service has consistently failed to respond well to these threatening incidents.
On July 3, 2014, a US secret service patrol had detained a man who was flying a small quad copter drone in President’s Park, just a block away from the White House grounds.
According to the US Federal Aviation administration, the camera-equipped drone was flying about 100 feet in the air near the statute of General William Sherman. The drone was confiscated by the US secret service.
In March 30, 2014, another intruder was caught and arrested after climbing over the White House fence.
Here follow brief details of some more security scares at the White House between 1974 and 2013:
A BBC report of February 7, 2001, a May 2005 CNN story, the September 13, 1994 edition of the New York Times and a recent Washington Post research in this context reveal that in 1974, a man called Robert Preston had stolen an Army helicopter from Fort Meade Maryland and had made it land on the White House grounds without authorization.
The helicopter had flown over the White House and had gone on to explore its south grounds, where it had hovered for about six minutes. It had briefly touched down about 50 metres from the West Wing as the guards were mere spectators, totally unaware that the helicopter had been stolen. When the man piloting the helicopter, had lowered himself further to about 10 metres above the ground, guards had to fire with shotguns and submachine guns, bringing the crippled chopper down.
On the Christmas Day 1974, a man called Marshall Fields had crashed his Chevrolet Impala through the north-west gate of the White House. The man claimed he was the “Messiah.” He had strapped flares to his body, which he described as explosives to the US Secret Service agents. He threatened to blow himself up. He had surrendered after four hours of negotiations.
In November 1975, an intruder Gerald Gainous had climbed the white house fence four times over a period of a year during the Ford administration.
In July 1976, a taxi driver Chester Plummer was shot dead after entering White House grounds. He had climbed over the White House fence with a one-metre length of pipe. An officer drew his revolver and had ordered the man to stop. He raised the pipe, threatening the officer, and continued. The officer shot the man in the chest, killing him. He was the first known shooting victim on White House grounds.
In 1976 again, a man Steven Williams had tried to drive a pick-up truck through the North-West gate of the White House. The gate held, but the front of the man’s truck was flattened.
In October 1978, a man named Anthony Henry wearing a white karate suit and with a Bible tucked under his arm, had scaled the White House fence. When Anthony Henry was confronted 15 yards from the fence line, he had pulled a knife from the Bible and slashed one security officer in the face and another in the arm. He wanted to persuade President Jimmy Carter that having the words “In God We Trust” on US currency was blasphemous.
In March 1984, a man David Mahonski was arrested outside White House fence. Armed with a shotgun, he was previously warned to stay away from the White House for making threats against the president.
In 1985, following President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration, an intruder Chester Ramsey had somehow entered the White House. He had wandered around the building for 15 minutes before being shot him in the arm and arrested.
In August 1986, a woman Rosita Bourbon had scaled
the northeast fence of the White House with a make-
shift ladder and was arrested shortly afterwards.
In November 1987, Mike Davis had 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.
In September 1994, a man called Frank Eugene Corder had crashed a stolen Cessna plane onto the South Lawn of the White House. Apparently trying to hit the building, he was killed on impact with the ground and was the sole casualty of the incident. In a state of severe intoxication, Corder had stolen the Cessna on the night of September 11, 1994 and had departed from Maryland’s Aldino Airport.
The crash had caused a re-evaluation in security procedures around the White House, as the pilot had entered the restricted airspace. Though the White House is rumoured to have been equipped with surface-to-air missiles, none were fired.
In October 1994, Francisco Duran took a semi-automatic rifle and had fired 29 rounds at the White House before being tackled to the ground and arrested.
In May 1995, Leland Williams was shot on the White House grounds after scaling the fence. Authorities doubted that he intended to harm the president as he appeared to have psychiatric problems.
In February 2001, Robert Pickett had fired shots outside the White House fence and was then shot in the knee and arrested by secret service agents.
In October 2005, Shawn Cox was apprehended after scaling the White House fence.
Between February and April 2006, Brian Lee Patterson had jumped the White House fence on four occasions.
In October 2006, Alexis Janicki had climbed over the fence while in possession of a bag of marijuana.
In March 2007, Catalino Lucas Diaz had scaled the fence and had threatened duty officers that he had a bomb. He was arrested after determining that he had no dangerous weapon.
In June 2009, Pamela Morgan had jumped the White House fence, while carrying a backpack. She was arrested immediately and her backpack later searched and found to contain nothing dangerous.
In November 2011, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was taken into custody in connection with bullets fired near the White House.
In June 2013, Joseph Clifford Reel had crashed a driverless jeep into the White House gate. Joseph was eventually arrested and sentenced to three years in prison.
(References: The Herald Tribune, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NBC News, CNN, the Associated Press, CBS News, the Los Angeles Times and the Miami News etc)