Washington: A 23-year-old man climbed over the White House fence and was quickly arrested as he fought two Secret Service dogs, in a second such incident in less than a month at one of the world’s heavily guarded buildings.
The intruder has been identified as Dominic Adesanya, a resident of Bel Air in Maryland, a suburb of Washington DC. “At approximately 7:16 pm on Wednesday, an individual climbed the North fence line of the White House,” Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said in a statement. President Barack Obama was at the White House at the time of the incident.
“The individual was immediately taken into custody on the North lawn of the White House by Secret Service Uniformed Division K-9 teams and Uniformed Division Officers. The subject is being transported to a local hospital for evaluation,” Donovan said.
Adesanya was unarmed at the time of his arrest, the spokesman said. Charges against Adesanya were pending. Video of the incident shows a man wearing a dark shirt and white gym shorts on the lawn outside the White House being yelled at by Secret Service officers.
He briefly lifted his shirt to show his chest before a pair of Secret Service dogs rushed to the man and pounced. Adesanya struggled with the animals, landing repeated punches and kicks. The man punched one of the dogs that attacked him, as seen in the video. Eventually, a Secret Service officer grabbed the man to lead him away. “Dogs got him,” the spokesman said, referring to the intruder. Two US Secret Service dogs were taken to a veterinarian for injuries sustained during the incident. Yesterday’s incident is the second time someone jumped the fence at the White House in the last month. In mid-September, a man, whom authorities identified as Omar Gonzalez, scaled a fence and, armed with a knife, made it into the White House before he was detained. The September 19 incident preceded the disclosure of other serious breaches in security for President Obama and ultimately led to Julia Pierson’s resignation as director of the Secret Service after 18 months on the job. (PTI)
