WATCH ABOVE: White House facing security changes after surprise trespasser
WASHINGTON – Investigators found more than 800 rounds of ammunition in the car of the man accused of scaling the White House fence and sprinting inside the building, a U.S. prosecutor said Monday. A machete and two hatchets also were found.
The accused intruder, former soldier Omar J. Gonzalez, had been arrested earlier in the summer in the nearby state of Virginia with a carful of weapons, authorities said, and the federal prosecutor said Monday in court that Gonzalez had had a map with the White House circled.
READ MORE: White House intruder identified as Army veteran who served in Iraq
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Mudd declared that Gonzalez was a danger to the president. Gonzalez, who was carrying a knife, was arrested just inside the White House front door.
President Barack Obama and his family had left the White House for Camp David Friday evening when the incident occurred. Obama’s spokesman said Monday that the president was “obviously concerned” about what happened. The breach led to a rare evacuation of much of the White House that evening.
At a hearing Monday for Gonzales, Mudd said the man was already under indictment in Virginia, accused of having a sawed-off shotgun and eluding police in a case this summer.
Separately, Wythe County Deputy Commonwealth Attorney David Saliba said Gonzalez also had two powerful rifles, four handguns and other guns and ammunition in his Ford Bronco when troopers stopped him in southwestern Virginia on July 19.
Saliba said Gonzalez initially tried to flee troopers, weaving and driving off the road into a highway median. Gonzalez was arrested at the scene after a trooper found the illegal shotgun in his car. The ammunition and weapons, including a tomahawk, were seized.
In Washington, the Secret Service, which protects the president and his family, increased its security on Monday around the perimeter of the White House, the presidential residence and one of the government’s enduring symbols, while investigating how officers had allowed the incident to happen.
Scrutiny of the Secret Service has intensified as it has been struggling to rehabilitate its image following a series of allegations of misconduct by in recent years, including some on Obama’s protective detail .
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Secret Service investigation will include a review of protective efforts both inside the White House grounds and outside the fence line along Pennsylvania Avenue, including staffing and threat assessment policies and procedures.
Gonzalez, a 42-year-old Army veteran faces charges of entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon. The Army says Gonzalez served from 1997 until his discharge in 2003, and again from 2005 to December 2012, when he retired due to disability.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said he would ultimately review the findings of the investigation ordered by Secret Service Director Julia Pierson. Johnson said the public should not rush to judgment about the security breach and urged against second-guessing security officers whom he said “had only seconds to act.”
The Secret Service didn’t open fire on Gonzalez or send attack dogs after him.
Officers who spotted Gonzalez scale the fence quickly assessed that he didn’t have any weapons in his hands and wasn’t wearing clothing that could conceal substantial quantities of explosives, a primary reason agents did not fire their weapons, according to a U.S. official briefed on the investigation.
Another consideration was whether bystanders behind the fence could have been injured by errant gunfire, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation by name and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
The Secret Service has long tried to balance public access to the “People’s House” and security of the presidential residence.
The two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House’s north gates has been closed to vehicle traffic since May 1995, when President Bill Clinton ordered the immediate closure of the road in an effort to prevent a potential car- or truck-bomb attack.
On any given day, numerous uniformed officers can be seen patrolling parts of the sprawling lawns on either side of the White House, and others are stationed along the fence line on Pennsylvania Avenue. Monday morning, several officers patrolled the fence line, including one with a dog.
But the pedestrian-only zone hasn’t entirely prevented security breaches along the fence or Pennsylvania Avenue.
Last September a man was arrested and accused of throwing firecrackers over the fence on the north lawn, near the area where Gonzalez is accused of climbing over the barrier. The Secret Service at the time said the man with firecrackers did not pose a threat.
A few weeks later a woman set off a police chase through downtown Washington after ramming a security checkpoint near the White House. Miriam Carey, 34, was shot and killed by police near the Capitol.
Associated Press writers Josh Lederman, Jessica Gresko and Julie Pace contributed to this report.
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