Thread: Secret Service says bullet hit White House

AP – 5 hrs ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Secret Service says a bullet hit an exterior window of the White House and was stopped by ballistic glass.

An additional round of ammunition was also found on the exterior of the White House. The bullets were found Tuesday.

The discovery follows reports of gunfire near the White House on Friday. Witnesses heard shots and saw two speeding vehicles in the area. An AK-47 rifle was also recovered.

The Secret Service says it has not conclusively connected Friday's incident with the bullets found on the White House grounds. U.S. Park Police have an arrest warrant out for Oscar Ortega-Hernandez, who is believed to be connected to the earlier incident.

http://news.yahoo.com/secret-says-bu...060255176.html

[i]comments

did the idiot really think bullets would penetrate any part of the White House?

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Am I reading this right? Did somebody do a drive-by on the White House.
That's...different.

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Wouldnt it be ironic if the gun came from "Fast And Furious"...?

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They recovered an AK-47? Doesn't say where or how. And...how do they know who the shooter is? There's way more to this story than the couple of lousy paragraphs above. The guy would have to be a pretty crazy or stupid person to do a drive by shooting at the white house. Geez.

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If it turns out to be guns that the administration sold, the story will be buried...


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OSCAR ORTEGA HERNANDES ? sound like mexican to me!

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I often wonder if the FBI monitors the comments posted on these boards.


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It's been awhile since an attempt was made on a president. It's in our history. I just hope it does not happen again. Given the atmosphere of hatred in the capitol, I am not shocked. But I am very disappointed.


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Many of us are more than a little angry at the current occupant of the White House and his administration, but no one who loves this country and understands its history would ever advocating shooting up the place! I hope they find those responsible soon and put them away for as long as the law allows.


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It's all fun and games until someone gets a bullet in the eye!
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Bullets hit buildings all over Washington every day.


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Washington being a sanctuary city, I wonder if Hernandez is legal ?

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They should move the white house and congress to a modern location and create a perimeter around them to eliminate terrorist attacks AND LOBBYISTS.

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Good thing they have strick gun control in Washington DC. Works well, just like the House and Senate!

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So, you can shoot at the White House and people just wonder what that pop, pop was?This story smacks of #$%$ bigtime!

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Odds are 10,000 to 1 that the weapon discovered was actually an AK-47. More than likely the weapon was a semi-automatic clone. The media loves to erroneously splash the AK-47 model designation around to feed the flames of sensationalism. Gee, and we thought Yellow Journalism was bad 120 years ago...

DC Shooting Suspect Could Be Threat to Obama, Police Say
By Pierre Thomas | ABC News – 21 mins ago

ABC News has learned authorities are increasingly concerned that a man sought in connection with a bizarre shooting incident on the Washington Mall last week may pose a threat to President Obama.

The Secret Service now suspects that a bullet fired in this incident may have hit the White House after a bullet round was found in a White House window, though the round had not yet been conclusively linked to the incident. The round was stopped by ballistic glass behind the historic exterior glass, while an additional round has been found on the exterior of the White House.

Police believe the suspect, 21-year-old Oscar Ramiro Ortega of Idaho, is mentally ill. Ortega has an extensive record, ranging from domestic violence to drug charges. Sources say a police investigation has uncovered evidence suggesting Ortega has a fixation on the White House.

At 9:30 p.m. Friday, police received reports of shots fired in the bustling area of 16th street and Constitution Ave.

Authorities would later find a car in the area. The suspect had fled, but what police discovered inside the vehicle left them deeply concerned: an assault style rifle and empty shell casings.

Police linked the car to Ortega and have been hunting him ever since.

It’s unclear whether Ortega is capable of launching a sophisticated attack, but police are still fearful of what he might do next.

Authorities suspect Ortega has been in the area for weeks, coming back and forth to the Washington Mall. Before the shooting, he was detained by local police at an abandoned house. U.S. Park police say Ortega may have spent time blending in with Occupy D.C. protesters.

President Obama, who is currently on a visit to Australia, was not present at the White House at the time of the incident, and in fact has been out of town for the past week. Secret Service officials are not taking any chances with the security of the President and the White House, though, and want Ortega off the street.

http://news.yahoo.com/dc-shooting-su...020705229.html

Secret Service says suspect in White House shooting arrested at Pennsylvania hotel
AP – 17 hrs ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secret Service says suspect in White House shooting arrested at Pennsylvania hotel

http://news.yahoo.com/secret-says-su...190508465.html

yes.... that is the entire "article"

Nov 15, 2011 9:06pm
DC Shooting Suspect Could Be Threat to Obama, Police Say

ABC News has learned authorities are increasingly concerned that a man sought in connection with a bizarre shooting incident on the Washington Mall last week may pose a threat to President Obama. The Secret Service now suspects that a bullet fired in this incident may have hit the White House after a bullet round was found in a White House window, though the round had not yet been conclusively linked to the incident. The round was stopped by ballistic glass behind the historic exterior glass, while an additional round has been found on the exterior of the White House.

Police believe the suspect, 21-year-old Oscar Ramiro Ortega of Idaho, is mentally ill. Ortega has an extensive record, ranging from domestic violence to drug charges. Sources say a police investigation has uncovered evidence suggesting Ortega has a fixation on the White House.

At 9:30 p.m. Friday, police received reports of shots fired in the bustling area of 16th street and Constitution Ave.

Authorities would later find a car in the area. The suspect had fled, but what police discovered inside the vehicle left them deeply concerned: an assault style rifle and empty shell casings. Police linked the car to Ortega and have been hunting him ever since. It’s unclear whether Ortega is capable of launching a sophisticated attack, but police are still fearful of what he might do next.

Authorities suspect Ortega has been in the area for weeks, coming back and forth to the Washington Mall. Before the shooting, he was detained by local police at an abandoned house. U.S. Park police say Ortega may have spent time blending in with Occupy D.C. protesters.

President Obama, who is currently on a visit to Australia, was not present at the White House at the time of the incident, and in fact has been out of town for the past week. Secret Service officials are not taking any chances with the security of the President and the White House, though, and want Ortega off the street.

http://news.yahoo.com/dc-shooting-su...020705229.html

Details unfold in shots fired at White House
By BRETT ZONGKER and JESSICA GRESKO | AP – 2 hrs 33 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man clad in black who was obsessed with President Barack Obama pulled his car within view of the White House at night and fired shots from an assault rifle, cracking a window of the first family's living quarters while the president was away, authorities said.

The U.S. Secret Service found two bullets had hit the White House and agents caught up with Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez in Pennsylvania on Wednesday after a four-day search. Police arrested the 21-year-old Idaho man at a hotel after a desk clerk recognized his picture. Ortega was scheduled to make his first appearance at 2 p.m. Thursday in federal court in Pittsburgh and many questions remained about his motive and background.

Authorities are investigating the man's mental health and say there are indications he believed attacking the White House was part of a personal mission from God, according to two different law enforcement officials who spoke with The Associated Press. There are also indications the man had become obsessed with Obama and the White House, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Shots were fired at the building Friday night. Agents discovered Tuesday that one of the two bullets hit the exterior and a second cracked a window on the second floor residential level, just behind the rounded portico visible from the south side of the White House. That bullet was stopped by protective ballistic glass. The window that was hit is in front of the so-called Yellow Oval Room, which is in the middle of the family's living quarters.

Obama and his wife Michelle were on a trip to California and Hawaii at the time of the shooting. The president has since traveled on to Australia on a nine-day Asia-Pacific tour. The Obamas were in California without daughters Malia and Sasha, but the White House had no immediate comment on the shooting or who may have been home at the time.

Investigators believe Ortega fired the rifle from his vehicle Friday, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation. Gunshots were reported that night on Constitution Avenue about 9:30 p.m. Soon after, U.S. Park Police found an abandoned vehicle, the assault rifle inside it, near a bridge leading out of the nation's capital to Virginia. The car led investigators to Ortega, and they obtained a warrant for his arrest Sunday, officials said.

This is not the first time the White House has come under attack.

In the past 40 years, the landmark has faced threats ranging from a stolen helicopter that landed on the grounds in 1974 to a man who wielded a sawed-off shotgun on a sidewalk outside in 1984. In 1994 alone, there were five threats including a plane crash on the lawn and a suspected drive-by shooting. Another man fired at least 29 rounds from a semiautomatic weapon, with 11 striking the White House.

Dan Bongino is a former Secret Service agent who served on the presidential details for Obama and President George W. Bush. He said Friday's shooting would likely mean tighter security and coordination.

"They do an exhaustive review of their security procedures every time something like this happens," he said. "Nothing ever works perfectly. They will undress this completely and then they will find out when they rebuild the incident exactly what they could have done better."

Bongino, who recently left the Secret Service to run for U.S. Senate in Maryland, said it was doubtful that a gunman could strike a target such as the White House from a moving car at the distance investigators suspect he shot. It would require "an incredible amount of training to pull that off," he said, suggesting it was more likely Ortega stopped his car to fire.

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Associated Press writers Jessie Bonner in Boise, Idaho, Joe Mandak in Pittsburgh, Kevin Begos in Indiana, Pa., Eric Tucker in New Orleans, Matt Apuzzo in Washington and AP photographer Haraz Ghanbari in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jessicagresko and Brett Zongker at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat .

http://news.yahoo.com/details-unfold...093137772.html


comments

Surprised it has not happened sooner with all the fear and hate the politicians and the media have managed to bombard the public with. There are a lot more crazies out there than we think and being a liberal or conservative has nothing to do with it crazy is crazy.

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Obama was in "Asia" visiting the 57th State, Hawaii, at the time. Why wouldn't he wait until the POTUS was there?

Idaho man charged with trying to assassinate Obama
By JOE MANDAK | AP – 30 mins ago

PITTSBURGH (AP) — An Idaho man accused of firing two shots at the White House last week has been charged with attempting to assassinate President Barack Obama or his staff.

Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, made his first court appearance before a federal magistrate in Pittsburgh on Thursday, one day after he was arrested at a western Pennsylvania hotel. He will be taken back from a federal court in Pittsburgh to face the charges in Washington, D.C.

Ortega will remain in federal custody at least until a magistrate in Washington can determine if he should remain jailed until his trial on the charge, which carries up to life in prison.

Ortega sat quietly as the hearing began, his hands free but his feet shackled. The 21-year-old said only, "Yes, ma'am" when he was asked if he understood that he would be going back to Washington to face the charge.

Authorities said a man clad in black who was obsessed with Obama pulled his car within view of the White House on Friday night and fired shots from an assault rifle, cracking a window of the first family's living quarters while the president was away.

Soon after, U.S. Park Police found an abandoned vehicle, with an assault rifle inside it, near a bridge leading out of the nation's capital to Virginia. The car led investigators to Ortega.

The FBI took custody of Ortega's car Thursday afternoon to continue the process of reviewing evidence, said Lindsay Godwin, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office.

Ortega was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a hotel near Indiana, Pa., about 55 miles east of Pittsburgh, after a desk clerk recognized his picture. He had been reported missing Oct. 31 by his family

http://news.yahoo.com/idaho-man-char...200142097.html

comments

Ortega was part of Occupy DC; why wasn't that in the story (just peaceful protesters right)!

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This story has more holes than swiss cheese. It changes by the hour. So lets get this straight. A mentally deranged Mexican from Idaho, drives to DC, takes two shots at the windows of the white house from over 1000 yards away per the story yesterday, abandons his car with the "assault rifle left behind", and then splits for Pittsburgh. Oh, and he is pals with a computer programmer from Idaho. OK, yea, this all sounds legit. Kind of like the Iranian from Texas who is going to hire Mexicans to assassinate the Saudi at a downtown DC restaurant. What's next. Midgets from Wisconsin standing on each others backs trying to shoot Nancy Pelosi in the butt with a sling shot? I can't take much more of this.

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I suppose it is posible to charge him with trying to assassinate Obama, but I wonder how he could assassinate Obama by shooting at the White House when Obama was out of the country. I am not sure if firing a gun at a building while driving in a car could be considered an assassination attempt. At no time did have Obama in his sights, and at no time was the president ever in danger. I hope he does not get off due to the prosecution overreaching on the charge.

I suppose it is posible to charge him with trying to assassinate Obama, but I wonder how he could assassinate Obama by shooting at the White House when Obama was out of the country. I am not sure if firing a gun at a building while driving in a car could be considered an assassination attempt. At no time did have Obama in his sights, and at no time was the president ever in danger. I hope he does not get off due to the prosecution overreaching on the charge.

Considering that Mr and Mrs Obama were in Hawaii at the time of the shooting it would have to be some kinda powerful gun and a magic bullet.


Man pleads not guilty to trying to kill Obama
By ERIC TUCKER | Associated Press – 1 hr 18 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Idaho man accused of firing shots at the White House pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he tried to assassinate President Barack Obama. A lawyer for Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez entered the plea on his client's behalf during a brief appearance in U.S. District Court in Washington. Ortega did not say anything during the proceedings and will remain held without bond. He has another court date next month.

Prosecutors say Ortega used an assault rifle with an attached scope to fire a series of shots at the White House from long range on the night of Nov. 11. Obama and his wife, Michelle, were out of town at the time. In the months before the shooting, investigators say, he had had become obsessed with Obama, referred to him as the anti-Christ and told at least one person that he planned to "take care of" the president.

Prosecutors say he drove away after the shooting and crashed his car, then took off on foot. Authorities searching his car found a semi-automatic rifle, 12 spent shell casings and three fully-loaded magazines, and bullet impact points were located in the area of the White House that's known to be the living quarters of the First Family. Authorities recovered a bullet from a window frame on the Truman Balcony.

He was arrested on Nov. 16 at the same hotel where he had stayed before the shooting, authorities say.

Ortega, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, was indicted last week on 17 counts including trying to assassinate the president, transporting a firearm across state lines and assaulting officers or employees of the United States with a deadly weapon. Those charges involve three government employees who were on the grounds of the White House at the time of the shooting.

Ortega's federal public defender, David Bos, has previously argued that prosecutors have not established that Ortega was present at the shooting or that the president was the target of the attack. Bos declined to comment after the hearing.

Ortega could face up to life in prison if convicted of trying to assassinate the president. The hearing took place in the same week that a lawyer for John Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, is making his case for extended time away from the psychiatric hospital where Hinckley has been confined.

http://news.yahoo.com/man-pleads-not...195522520.html

comments

Eric Tucker can be reached at http://twitter.com/etucker

Only in America you can attempt murder on someone not even at the scene.

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As much as I Hate Obama, I would rather folks would take out their anger in the voting booth.

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As much as I Hate Obama, I would rather folks would take out their anger in the voting booth.

Secret Service agent almost shot Iranian President Ahmadinejad in 2006
4:07 PM 03/21/2013
Jamie Weinstein Senior Editor

Iran’s Holocaust-denying president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was nearly shot by a U.S. Secret Service Agent in 2006, according to an excerpt of a forthcoming book published at TheAtlantic.com.

In the “Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry,” Marc Ambinder and D.B. Grady report that the incident occurred while Ahmadinejad was in New York to give a speech at the United Nations. As he and his entourage were getting into their motorcade one morning, a Secret Service agent discharged a shotgun in the direction of the Iranian delegation, allegedly by accident.

Ahmadinejad and the Iranian delegation reportedly looked in the direction of the shooter before going on their way.

"When I read that, I remember closing my eyes,” a source who read the intelligence brief on the subject at the time told Ambinder and Grady, indicating that White House officials feared Ahmadinejad would use the incident as a mallet to bash the United States.

But to the surprise of the White House, Ahmadinejad never mentioned it in public.

Ahmadinejad is currently finishing up the final months of his 8-year, two-term tenure as Iranian president.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/21/se...#ixzz2OD8if6bK

6 Humiliating Secret Service Fails That Show Why Julia Pierson Needed to Go
By Victoria Taft 23 hours ago

Maybe you felt sorry for Secret Service Director Julia Pierson as she withstood a congressional grilling about her agency’s failure to protect the President. In case you didn’t see the news, she has tendered her resignation. Maybe it was this embarrassing exchange before Congress, or maybe it was simply her wretched track record since 2013. http://www.ijreview.com/2014/09/1829...dministration/

Here, in no particular order are the Secret Service’s 6 biggest fails in recent memory:

1. Hookergate http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/21/us/sec...dal/index.html



This babetastic event quickly sank to craptastic status when Secret Service agents, there to do advance security work for a presidential visit to Cartagena, Colombia, went clubbing, got drunk and decided to see if they could make it with the local talent. In the morning, one of the agents decided not to pay his $800 hooker bill. Police were called. This 2012 embarrassment saw Secret Service agents sent home. Nine lost their jobs.

2. Fence Jumper http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...inside-n214316



On September 19, 2014, 42-year-old Omar J. Gonzalez, jumped the White House fence, ran across the yard, swung open the unlocked north portico doors and made it all the way to the East Room, where the President held an event earlier in the day. To get that far, the Iraq War vet with PTSD outran several agents and knocked one female agent out of the way. The White House locks its door now.

3. Elevator Buddy http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...6a0_story.html



An armed felon was allowed to share an elevator with the President during his September 16, 2014, visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. The felon had been hired by the CDC’s private security firm. He was outed when he refused Secret Service requests to stop videoing the President with his phone. Agents were surprised when, after the guard was fired on the spot, he turned over his service weapon. They hadn’t known he was armed. The Secret Service had done no background check on him, nor run him through a magnetometer (a sophisticated type of metal detector). The top brass at the Secret Service told agents on the ground not to write up the incident, in an apparent attempt at a cover up. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...804_story.html

4. Mandela Memorial http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/fa...er-f2D11723934



Remember the goofy sign language interpreter at the memorial for the late South African leader? The “interpreter,” whose gesticulating was quickly outed as a fraud, was actually a mentally deranged murderer who was never background-checked. That man was allowed to stand within four feet of President Obama at the event. In fact, according to a book about the Secret Service, not one of the thousands of people who came to the service held at a packed soccer stadium was put through a magnetometer, had their bags checked or subjected to a pat down, even though several world leaders were in attendance. http://www.audible.com/pd/Bios-Memoi...id=50790255300

5. The Real Gatecrashers of DC http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...arty-crashers/



It was quite a splash for the new stars of the reality TV series The Real Housewives of D.C. Tareq and Michaele Salahi, along with a gossip columnist, talked their way past several security checks and into the Obama’s first state dinner in 2009.


6. Shots Fired. http://www.audible.com/pd/Bios-Memoi...id=50790255300



In November of 2011, a report came in from a Secret Service agent on the White House grounds that shots were fired. The claim was run up the flagpole, no one saluted, a stand down order was given and the issue was forgotten.

Until four days later, when a housekeeper discovered broken glass, and the Secret Service figured out a high powered rifle was used to take a shot at the First Family. President and Mrs. Obama were gone, but Marian Robinson (the First Lady’s mother) and one of the Obama girls were in the family residence. The case didn’t go down very well with Congress. http://www.ijreview.com/2014/09/1829...dministration/


http://www.ijreview.com/2014/10/1829...service-fails/

comments

Remember the goofy sign language interpreter at the memorial for the late South African leader? The “interpreter,” whose gesticulating was quickly outed as a fraud, was actually a mentally deranged murderer who was never background-checked. That man was allowed to stand within four feet of President Obama at the event. In fact, according to a book about the Secret Service, not one of the thousands of people who came to the service held at a packed soccer stadium was put through a magnetometer, had their bags checked or subjected to a pat down, even though several world leaders were in attendance.

In all honesty - the "Security" should have been handled by the Host Country ... but the Secret Service should have never "trusted" someone else to do their job.

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Like Obama or not, the secret service failed the United States here. They work for us!

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Like him or not? If you are not respected by those that protect you, do you really think they are going to try that hard?

With the lack of respect afforded to those agents and his other military protective personnel, I can't blame his handlers for not wanting to take a bullet for him