WASHINGTON D.C. (Reuters) – A Tennessee woman driving a white van on Friday intentionally drove into a White House security barrier but did not breach it, and she was immediately apprehended and put under arrest, the US Secret Service said.
No shots were fired and no law enforcement personnel were hurt, the Secret Service said in a statement.
Previous encounters with the 35-year-old woman from La Vergne, Tennessee, near the White House, had resulted “in numerous arrests for a variety of criminal violations,” it added, without giving her name.
“The female was again charged today with numerous criminal violations and transported to the Metropolitan Police Department,” the statement said, adding that normal operations had resumed at the White House complex.
“This minivan came and crashed into the barricade and tried to push through the barricade and his tires were burning rubber and a lot of smoke was coming up,” eyewitness Chris Bello, 50, of New York, told reporters near the
scene.
“And then about 30 seconds after that the two security guards that were in the booth, you know, ordered him to stop doing what he was doing and he didn’t listen,” Bello said.