The US Secret Service arrested a man on the night of the 5th in a vehicle holding three firearms near the White House. The Department of Homeland Security said he heard voices telling him to harm the president, but court filings reviewed by ABC News did not contain that statement.
According to Kyunghyang Shinmun on the 7th, the arrest took place on the night of the 5th, US time, on a road near the White House. Agents noticed a man behaving suspiciously inside a blue Ford F-150 parked on Constitution Avenue and approached. The suspect is reported to be a Venezuelan national; we do not print his name.
광고 문의 · 300×250The report says that when an agent knocked on the window and asked whether he was all right and armed, the man nodded and made a gun shape with his fingers. After stepping out, he reportedly communicated with investigators through Google Translate, saying someone had tried to kill him, that he had taken a gun in the process, and that the weapons were in a brown bag.
A search turned up one AR-15-style rifle, one MAC-10 machine pistol, one Glock 43X pistol and dozens of rounds of ammunition. The vehicle had been reported stolen. How the suspect obtained the weapons does not appear in the reports we reviewed.
A gap between officials and court papers
Homeland Security said the suspect told officers that voices in his head told him to go to Washington and harm President Trump, and the Associated Press carried that account. But Kyunghyang reported that ABC News found no such statement in the criminal complaint filed in court. With the official account and public documents differing, the context and reliability of the remark are hard to judge.
The publicly listed charges include unlawful transport of firearms, possession of unregistered firearms and ammunition, carrying a pistol and rifle without a licence, unauthorised use of a vehicle and receiving stolen property. An attempted assassination charge is not among them. He made his first appearance on the 6th in the Superior Court in Washington, DC, and is held without bail.
Rising concern over protective security
Homeland Security said the man entered illegally through Texas in March 2024 and was released after being caught by the Border Patrol. That too is the government’s account, and we could not independently verify the immigration details. Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a statement that agents defused the immediate danger through training and experience.
Curran also said the threat level in the protective environment is rising, with armed people repeatedly approaching the White House area. In May, a man who opened fire near a White House security checkpoint was shot dead by agents. The motive and mental state in this case remain to be established by investigators and the courts, and are not confirmed.
