This was terrible.
On Sunday, a man was shot by Secret Service agents during an armed confrontation near the White House. The incident took place around midnight, close to the Eisenhower Office Building, which is located one block away from the White House.
The suspect was identified as 27-year-old Andrew Dawson, a resident of Indiana. According to Secret Service officials, Dawson was armed with both a firearm and a knife when agents approached him following an earlier warning. Law enforcement sources revealed that Indiana authorities had alerted Washington, D.C. police that Dawson was en route to the capital and was reportedly suicidal. Additional intelligence reports indicated that Dawson had been contemplating “suicide by cop.”
Agents from the Secret Service encountered Dawson’s car near 17th and F Streets, NW, and noticed a man matching the description of the suspect nearby. When they instructed him to drop his weapons, Dawson refused to comply. The situation escalated when the suspect reportedly reached toward his waist, prompting the Secret Service to open fire.
In a statement, the agency clarified, “As officers got close, the man pulled out a firearm and an armed confrontation began, during which shots were released by our agents.” Dawson was quickly transported to a nearby hospital, but his current condition remains unknown. Thankfully, no Secret Service agents were injured in the encounter.
The Metropolitan Police Department will oversee the investigation into the shooting, as they are the primary agency responsible for investigating use-of-force incidents within Washington, D.C. During the unfortunate event, President Trump wasn’t at the White House and was scheduled to return to the capital from his Mar-a-Lago estate later that day.
