- A 21-year-old Maryland man was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division officers after opening fire directly on a security checkpoint outside the White House complex.
- Federal records indicate the suspect had been placed under an involuntary psychiatric hold and arrested in 2025 after trying to storm the complex while claiming to be Jesus Christ and voicing a desire to harm the president.
- While President Donald Trump remained completely unharmed inside the executive mansion, an innocent bystander sustained a non-life-threatening gunshot wound during the rapid exchange of gunfire and is currently recovering in serious condition.
The suspect in Saturday’s shooting outside the White House was arrested last year after trying to gain access to the White House, and he may have had mental health issues, according to law enforcement sources and court documents.
Emerging from a high-security perimeter near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW on Saturday evening, May 23, 2026, Eko Hot Blog reports that the gunman approached a Secret Service security booth before pulling a revolver from a messenger bag and firing multiple rapid-fire shots.
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Uniformed division officers stationed at the security gate and inside a nearby patrol cruiser immediately returned fire, hitting the attacker who was later pronounced dead after being rushed to George Washington University Hospital.
The violent encounter triggered an immediate one-hour lockdown across the executive mansion, with security teams moving swiftly to herd international correspondents and North Lawn media crews into the lower press briefing rooms for emergency safety.
Federal intelligence agencies quickly identified the deceased assailant as Nasire Best, a resident of Dundalk, Maryland, who had accumulated a documented history of severe psychological instability and prior physical altercations with Washington law enforcement.
In June 2025, Best had been involuntarily committed to the Psychiatric Institute of Washington after blocking an entry lane to the White House, aggressively declaring to responding agents that he was “God” and “the real Osama bin Laden.”
Barely two weeks after that initial administrative release, Best was arrested for unlawful entry in July 2025 for deliberately walking past explicit federal warning markers into a highly restricted section of the White House perimeter, telling officers that he wanted to be arrested.
A D.C. Superior Court judge subsequently issued a strict stay-away order barring him from entering the capital’s political core; however, court records show Best subsequently failed to appear for a scheduled status hearing, triggering an active, no-bond bench warrant.
Investigators reviewing his digital footprints uncovered multiple recent social media uploads where he openly mocked the 2024 assassination attempt on Trump and expressed a strong desire to execute a successful attack against the president.
While no federal law enforcement officers sustained injuries during the shootout, an innocent bystander was struck by a bullet fragment outside a nearby commercial coffee shop and underwent successful emergency surgery overnight.
Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran praised the heroic actions of the frontline guards, highlighting their professional execution of defensive procedures within a highly elevated political threat environment.
Per standard operational protocol for officer-involved fatalities in the District of Columbia, the Metropolitan Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau Force Investigation Team will lead the comprehensive use-of-force inquiry alongside the U.S. Attorney’s Office to process ballistic evidence and establish the exact trajectory of the crossfire.
