Secret Service Reviewing White House Security Measures After Fence Jumper Narrowly Misses Obama

The Inquisitr first reported late Friday (September 19) on a Texas man who jumped the fence at the White House and made it inside the mansion before United States Secret Service agents were able to apprehend him.

Now the Washington Post is reporting that the agency tasked with protecting the president of the United States is reviewing White House security measures after the fence jumper was able to get further than any fence jumper in the past.

The jumper, identified as Omar J. Gonzalez, narrowly missed being on the lawn with President Barack Obama, as the president had just departed the White House on Marine One with his daughters for a trip to Camp David in Maryland, according to Newsweek.

With the jumper able to get so close to the president, The Post reports that the Secret Service is reviewing its White House security procedures after the building was evacuated of staff and the White House Press Pool following Gonzalez’s successful attempt to enter the building.

Secret Service Spokesman Edwin Donovan told The Post that Gonzalez’s successful entry into the White House before being arrested by agents was “obviously concerning… What happened here is not acceptable to us, and it’s going to be closely reviewed.”

While it may be “obviously concerning,” one unidentified law enforcement official who spoke to The Post said there was a simple way to stop fence jumpers or other intruders on the White House grounds.

“We’re asking, why not release the dog?… That would have stopped this.”

That is right. The U.S. Secret Service apparently has attack dogs that have been able to subdue past fence jumpers, but The Post reports that the Secret Service’s dog was not released during Friday’s White House security incident.

And while a lot of media reports have noted that White House fence jumpers have never been able to successfully enter the mansion until Friday’s incident, the building itself was famously entered before during the War of 1812, when the Brits ransacked the building before burning it.

Another incident during the presidency of Bill Clinton was different than fence jumping or enemy troops storming the mansion. A September 13, 1994, report in The New York Times noted that the incident occurred in the middle of the night when the pilot of a Cessna 150 aimed the propeller plane directly for the president’s bedroom. Fortunately, he missed, and instead hit the White House lawn before coming to rest two stories below the president’s bedroom. However, the room was unoccupied since Clinton was sleeping at Blair House while repairs were made to the presidential living quarters. In that pre-9/11 incident, the only person killed was the pilot of the aircraft, 39-year-old Frank Eugene Corder of Maryland, The Times reported.

[Image via Flickr Creative Commons]