Unarmed Man Arrested After Scaling White House Fence

On Sunday, an unarmed man scaled the White House fence and ran around screaming and yelling, “I am a victim of terrorism,” before Secret Service agents subdued him at gunpoint, handcuffed him and removed him from the scene, Reuters reports.

Forty-year-old Brian Lee Patterson will be charged with unlawful entry and contempt of court regarding a past court order to steer clear of the area after a similar incident at the White House last February, according to Reuters.

The president was in the White House at the time, Reuters reports.

Though he stressed that every breach of security at the White House is taken seriously, Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren told Reuters that the suspect had scaled the fence on three separate occasions and that he made “no spoken threats” to President Bush.

Roughly a dozen White House emergency response team members, with guns drawn, encircled the suspect on a patio before restraining and removing him, according to Reuters.

Patterson was taken to a local hospital to be treated for a wound he got from climbing the fence, Reuters reports.

It’s currently unclear how Patterson breached security, as the fences surrounding the White House are heavily guarded, with police on foot patrol, bikes and motorcycles positioned at the front gate and surrounding sidewalk, according to Reuters.

The incident is the second security breach at the White House in about as many weeks. 

On March 22, a man was arrested for throwing a suspicious package over a White House fence, causing the front gates to be closed for fear the package contained explosives. That man had been detained in the past for similar incidents, and the package was determined to be harmless, according to Reuters.

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