The man Secret Service officers shot and killed Saturday near the White House was a Maryland resident who had recently lived in Baltimore County, according to court records.
On Saturday evening around 6 p.m., a man allegedly pulled a gun from a bag he was carrying and fired, Anthony Guglielmi, the Service’s communications director, said in a statement posted to social media. Secret Service Police returned fire, fatally shooting the man.
A variety of news outlets identified the man Nasire Best, citing anonymous law enforcement sources. Another person, an unnamed bystander, was also injured in the exchange.
Court records show Best was living in Dundalk last year before his landlord had him evicted for failure to pay rent. Best, 21, did not appear in court for those proceedings and was evicted in December, records show.
Best had a few run-ins with Secret Service officers last summer. He would walk around the White House and stop at various entry points and ask officers how he could get inside, according to court records. In late June, the Secret Service sought to have Best involuntarily committed after he blocked a vehicle trying to enter the White House grounds.
Then, on July 10, Best was arrested after he walked through an exit turnstile and tried to go further onto White House grounds. Officers in court records said Best told them he was “Jesus Christ” and that he “wanted to get arrested.”
A D.C. judge released Best, who pleaded not guilty, apparently on the condition he stay away from the White House. Best didn’t show up for his next court date and had been wanted since.
Saturday’s shooting was the third time in a month that shots were fired near President Trump, including incidents at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April and around the Washington Monument in early May.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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