White House Intruder Was Tackled By Off-Duty Agent

The on-duty Secret Service didn’t do the job. It was an off-duty agent who tackled the White House intruder.

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The agent who finally tackled Omar Gonzalez had been serving on the security detail for President Obama’s daughters and had just seen the family depart via helicopter minutes earlier. He happened to be walking through the house when chaos broke out and the intruder dashed through the main foyer, according to two people familiar with the incident.

Gonzalez, 42, was the first person in modern memory to jump over the White House fence and get into the mansion, largely the result of a failure of numerous layers of Secret Service security on the northern fence line…

The additional information about the incident came as Secret Service Director Julia Pierson was being grilled on Capitol Hill about the Gonzalez incident and other security lapses…

Pierson did not reveal during her testimony that the agent who tackled him was not actually assigned to the post where he confronted Gonzalez.

The agent, according to people familiar with the incident, who previously worked as a counter-assault team member, could easily have been outside or on his way home.[su_csky_ad]

D.B. Hirsch

D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.