WASHINGTON (CNN) — A man who jumped a fence at the White House late Friday and made it through the North Portico doors was carrying a folding knife in his pants pocket, according to a Secret Service affidavit filed Saturday.
Omar Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, Texas, is accused of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon, officials said.
The affidavit, in support of a criminal complaint, said he carried a Spyderco VG-10 folding knife with a three-and-a-half inch serrated blade in his pants pocket. On Friday, the Secret Service said the fence jumper appeared to be unarmed.
Gonzalez told a Secret Service agent “that he was concerned that the atmosphere was collapsing and needed to get the information to the President of the United States so that he could get the word out to the people,” according to the affidavit.
Gonzalez, who was in custody Saturday evening, is scheduled to appear before a U.S. magistrate on Monday. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
A Secret Service officer said he yelled at the intruder to stop. Gonzalez was apprehended just after making it inside the doors, according to the document. The first family was not at the White House at the time, but other people were.
President Obama had left just four minutes earlier with his daughters via helicopter from the South Lawn to visit Camp David.
On Saturday, in the second security incident at the White House in as many days, an individual failed to stop at the entrance to the White House complex while driving his vehicle, Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said.
The man, identified as Kevin Carr of Shamong, New Jersey, was arrested and charged with unlawful entry, Leary said. According to Leary, Carr is either 18 or 19 years old.
The incident happened at the entrance at 15th and E Streets, where the driver did not stop when the Secret Service ordered him to do so, Leary said.
The man’s car did not hit the barriers at the entrance, and he then exited the vehicle, Leary said.
Carr was arrested after he refused to leave, Leary said.
The Secret Service said it would interview personnel and review policies and security procedures following the fence-jumping incident.
The agency said its director, Julia Pierson, ordered additional patrol officers around the White House complex. This happened before Saturday’s security incident.
“The President has full confidence in the Secret Service and is grateful to the men and women who day in and day out protect himself, his family and the White House,” White House spokesman Frank Benenati said. “The Secret Service is in the process of conducting a thorough review of the event on Friday evening and we are certain it will be done with the same professionalism and commitment to duty that we and the American people expect (from) USSS.”
