Man arrested after jumping White House fence, causing lockdown

[October 23, 2014]  By Jeff Mason
 
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A man jumped the White House fence on Wednesday evening and was attacked by Secret Service dogs before being arrested, a Secret Service spokesman said.

"Dogs got him," spokesman Edwin Donovan said, referring to the intruder.

He identified the intruder as Dominic Adesanya, 23, of Bel Air, Maryland, and said he was unarmed at the time of his arrest.

Video showed Secret Service agents surrounding the man on the north lawn of the White House, which was put on lockdown for about 90 minutes. The man punched one of the dogs that attacked him, as seen in the video.

Two Secret Service dogs "were taken to a veterinarian for injuries sustained during the incident," Donovan said.

The incident came roughly a month after an intruder armed with a knife scaled the White House fence and made it inside the executive mansion, raising questions about security levels at the heavily guarded complex and spurring the resignation of then-Secret Service Director Julia Pierson.

The man climbed the fence around 7:15 p.m. (2315 GMT) and was apprehended shortly thereafter. The lockdown was lifted shortly before 9 p.m.

"The individual was immediately taken into custody on the North lawn of the White House by Secret Service Uniformed Division K-9 teams and Uniformed Division Officers," Donovan said. K-9 refers to the team using specially trained dogs.

The man was then transported to a hospital for evaluation, the spokesman said.

The latest White House security breach happened the same day a gunman attacked Canada's parliament in Ottawa.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Sandra Maler, Peter Cooney and Mohammad Zargham)

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