Police have arrested a man they believe intentionally crashed a U-Haul truck into a security barrier at a park across from the White House.
The box truck's driver smashed into the barrier near the north side of Lafayette Square on Monday around 10 p.m., Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement. No one was injured.
Officers from the Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department searched the truck after the crash. Video posted by WUSA-TV shows a police officer at the scene picking up and inventorying several pieces of evidence from the truck, including a Nazi flag.
Based on a preliminary investigation, investigators believe the driver "may have intentionally struck the security barriers at Lafayette Square,” Guglielmi said. Authorities offered no additional details about the possible motive and had not released the driver's identity.
The U.S. Park Police said the man was arrested on multiple charges, including threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict harm on a president, vice president or member of their family; assault with a dangerous weapon; reckless driving; destruction of federal property; and trespassing.
Lafayette Square, which offers perhaps the best view of the White House available to the public, has long been one of the nation’s most prominent venues for demonstrations. The park was closed for nearly a year after federal authorities fenced off the area at the height of nationwide protests over policing following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but it reopened in May 2021.
U-Haul is a moving truck, trailer and self-storage rental company based in Phoenix.
Donald Trump's lawyer sought Thursday to pick apart a decades-old rape claim against the former president, questioning why accuser E. Jean Carroll did not scream or seek help when Trump allegedly attacked her in a department store.
Some residents along the swelling Upper Mississippi River evacuated their homes this week while others scrambled Wednesday to stack sandbags in preparation for what forecasters say could be near-record flooding caused by the rapid melting of a huge snowpack in northern Minnesota.
Cheddar News correspondent Shannon LaNier continues his weeklong series, Shannon Shapes Up, exploring alternative ways to get fit. In today's episode, he learns about the benefits of surfing as exercise with Aaron Thouvenin, owner of Surf Set in midtown Manhattan.
U.N. officials said Tuesday that one side in the Sudan conflict has seized control of a national health lab in the capital of Khartoum that holds biological material, calling it an “extremely dangerous” development.
A ground assault by the Taliban killed the Islamic State militant who spearheaded the August 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that left 13 U.S. troops and about 170 Afghans dead during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
Jury selection has begun in the federal death penalty trial of a man accused of shooting to death 11 Jewish worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
Cheddar News correspondent Shannon LaNier gets his hands dusty learning the finer points of indoor rock climbing, as part of a new series called Shannon Shapes Up.
