Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Secret Service shoots armed suspect near Washington Monument

The suspect opened fire after being confronted by officers, prompting a lockdown of parts of the National Mall and the White House.

The National Mall in Washington, D.C. Credit: Albert Pego/Shutterstock.
The National Mall in Washington, D.C. Credit: Albert Pego/Shutterstock.

An armed man was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service officers on Monday after opening fire near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., authorities said.

The incident occurred at 15th Street and Independence Avenue NW, along the National Mall, approximately half a block from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. There is no indication of any connection to the museum, and a spokesperson there did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Matt Quinn, deputy director of the Secret Service, said the suspect opened fire after being confronted by officers, who then returned fire.

A wounded bystander was transported to the hospital by emergency units, while another was treated at the scene for minor injuries, according to a spokesman for the D.C. Fire and EMS Department.

The area around the monument was closed off as law enforcement investigated. The White House was briefly locked down, and reporters were moved indoors as a precaution. U.S. President Donald Trump, who was hosting a small-business event in the East Room at the time, continued the program without interruption.

Quinn said Vice President JD Vance’s motorcade had passed through the area shortly before the shooting, but was not believed to be a target.

The shooting comes just over a week after a separate security incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where a gunman attempted to breach a security perimeter and was later charged in the attack.

Mike Wagenheim is a Washington-based correspondent for JNS, primarily covering the U.S. State Department and Congress. He is the senior U.S. correspondent at the Israel-based i24NEWS TV network.
Abdulkadir Al-Jelani, 58, is due in court on July 1 and faces charges of making the threats and three counts of assault with a weapon.
The designations include Hezbollah-linked institutions that “threaten regional stability, international security, mutual interests and global trade,” the U.S. Treasury Department stated.
Gerard Filitti, of the Lawfare Project, told JNS that “lax immigration policy” has always been the main driver of importing “terrorist ideology” into the United States.
“The teachers we have, we don’t respect and support in the way that they deserve,” Paul Bernstein told JNS. “If we’re successful and we grow enrollment, that problem only gets bigger.”
“The message being sent is that you can get away with attacking someone in broad daylight because you disagree with their opinions, especially if it involves feelings about Israel,” Joshua Burt, of the Anti-Defamation League, told JNS.
“Not identifying Hamas as a terrorist organization is, I think, a failure, Marc Miller told the Canadian Press. “And not clearly stating that, for example, Hamas intended to kill Jews is, I think, an unfortunate error in curation and should be rectified.”