On the evening of Saturday, May 24, an unknown man approached a checkpoint near the White House and opened fire.
This was reported by the US Secret Service.
They said the incident occurred near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Police returned fire at the man, who later died in hospital.
During the shooting, a bullet also hit a passerby, who is in the hospital. There were no injuries among the law enforcement officers.
The US President Donald Trump was at the White House at the time of the incident. He later thanked the US Secret Service and law enforcement for their "swift and professional actions" on Truth Social.
According to him, the armed man with a criminal past was "obsessed" with the White House, and this incident once again demonstrates the need to create "the most secure complex" to protect future US presidents in Washington.
CNN, citing sources, writes that the attacker was 21-year-old Nasir Best, who had previously had contacts with the Secret Service. In June 2025, he blocked the entrance to the White House, then declared that he was "God". He was then detained and placed in the Washington Psychiatric Institute for a psychiatric examination.
The following month, in July 2025, the Secret Service arrested Best again after he attempted to enter the driveway of the White House complex and said he was “Jesus Christ”. A court then issued an order keeping him away from the White House grounds.
At the same time, investigators discovered that Best claimed on social media that he was the "real" Osama bin Laden, and also spoke in at least one post about wanting to harm US President Donald Trump.
- On April 26, a shooting occurred during the White House Correspondentsʼ Association dinner attended by US President Donald Trump. The attacker, armed with guns and knives, burst into the lobby near the correspondentsʼ dinner venue and rushed into the ballroom before Secret Service agents surrounded and detained him.
- Trump was not injured and was immediately taken out of the building. The man managed to shoot and hit a law enforcement officer several times, who was wearing a bulletproof vest and was fine. The suspect was identified as 31-year-old tutor from California, Cole Thomas Allen.
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