Gunman Shot Near White House

[Guest guest]

Gunman Shot Near White House; Suspect at Hospital

President Bush Wasn't in Danger

By TERENCE HUNT

..c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (Feb. 7) - A middle-aged accountant with a history of mental

illness fired several shots outside the White House Wednesday and then was

shot by the Secret Service as he waved his handgun menacingly, authorities

said. The tense, noontime standoff sent tourists running for cover.

The midday drama unfolded just outside the fence at the edge of the South

Lawn, 200 yards from the building where President Bush was inside exercising.

The man, wounded in the knee and hospitalized, was identified by law

enforcement sources as W. Pickett, 47, from ville, Ind. He had

been fired by the Internal Revenue Service in the mid 1980s, and neighbors

said he kept to himself, resented the IRS and was obsessed with West Point,

where he had dropped out after a semester in 1972. Pickett had acknowledged

in court records suffering from mental illness and trying to commit suicide.

Bush, working out in the White House residence, was alerted by Secret Service

agents ''but understood that he was not in any danger,'' spokesman Ari

Fleischer said. First lady Bush was in Texas. Vice President Dick

Cheney was working in his White House office.

The shooting was the latest in a string of security scares that have brought

tighter protection for U.S. presidents. In 1995, then-President Clinton

ordered Pennsylvania Avenue closed in front of the White House following the

Oklahoma City bombing. Earlier that year, a man was shot on the White House

lawn after scaling a fence with an unloaded gun.

The latest incident, shortly before noon on a sunny, springlike day,

triggered a tight security clampdown. Tourists were evacuated from White

House rooms, and police in riot gear took up positions around the executive

mansion and beyond its gates.

Dan Halpert, a tourist from Queens, N.Y., was on the National Mall nearby,

when officers told him to get down and clear out.

''We were all running away. It was scary,'' said Halpert, 24.

The confrontation occurred on E Street where tourists gather along the White

House fence to snap photos of the executive mansion and hope for a glimpse of

Bush jogging on the track encircling the South Lawn. There is an unobstructed

view from the fence to the mansion.

Secret Service officers on routine patrol in a car ''heard shots fired and

proceeded to surround a subject who was wielding a weapon, a gun,'' White

House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. A 10-minute standoff ensued in

which witnesses said they heard officers try to persuade the man to put the

gun down.

''It doesn't have to be this way, put the gun down,'' one witness recalled

police warning the suspect.

''He was waving it in the air - it was pointed at the White House at one

point - and pointing it in all directions,'' said Park Police spokesman Rob

MacLean. At another point the man placed the gun in his mouth, MacLean said.

Pickett was shot in the right knee by a member of the Secret Service's

Emergency Response Team when he ''raised the gun again and started aiming it

at people,'' a Secret Service source said, talking on condition of anonymity.

The officer fired from inside the White House compound, through the

wrought-iron fence.

A five-shot, .38-caliber handgun and shell casings were recovered at the

scene, a Secret Service official said. ville police detective Alan Brack

said the gun was traced to a local gun dealer.

Pickett was taken to Washington University Hospital, five blocks away,

where he was in serious condition after undergoing two hours of surgery to

remove the bullet from his knee. He also was to undergo psychological

evaluation.

Dr. Yolanda Haywood, associate professor of emergency medicine, said that

when he was brought to the hospital he was silent, unusually calm for someone

with a bullet wound.

A brother, Pickett of Sleepy Hollow, Ill., expressed regret about the

incident. ''We are glad no innocent people were hurt. We've been estranged

from for several years now. We hope that he gets the help that he

needs.''

In ville, agents of the Secret Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco

and Firearms searched Pickett's home, looking for weapons, threatening

letters or other evidence. Before entering, officers from the ville

police bomb squad scouted outside for booby traps or bombs.

Pickett had no criminal record and was not listed in Secret Service files as

a potential threat to the president, authorities said. He lived alone in a

modest, two-story house that had been owned by his parents before their

deaths.

''I don't recall that there were ever any cars coming in to visit or any

people associating with him. He was really always by himself,'' said Marwan

Wafa of Racine, Wis., who lived across the street from Pickett for seven

years before moving last summer.

ville attorney ph Yocum represented Pickett when he was fired by the

IRS in the mid-1980s. ''They said he wasn't doing his job properly and having

trouble with attendance,'' Yocum said.

Pickett lost the appeal of his firing and later acted as his own attorney in

an 1994 lawsuit against the IRS, contending the firing violated his

constitutional rights. Records show that a judge dismissed the lawsuit at the

IRS' request and that Pickett had four other lawsuits in federal court.

Mike Jewel, who lives next door to Pickett, said the accountant remained

angry at the IRS after the litigation. ''I could tell he was aggravated by

the tax system and the IRS sometimes,'' Jewel said.

Prosecutors said agents were interviewing witnesses and that no charges would

be filed before Thursday. Authorities were weighing whether to charge him

with violating Washington's local ban on handguns, or a more serious federal

count of assaulting a federal officer.

The shooting adds a new dynamic to an already heated debate over whether to

reopen Pennsylvania Avenue, on the other side of the White House. Clinton

followed the Secret Service's warnings about security threats in closing the

famed street, but businessmen and city officials have pressed to have the

decision reversed. The Republican Party platform last year called for the

reopening.

Fleischer said Bush ''has made no determination at this time as to what he

will do or what he won't do.'' He said Bush had discussed the issue with the

Secret Service and Washington Mayor .

A senior Bush aide said top advisers were inclined even before Wednesday to

recommend that Bush keep the street closed.

AP-NY-02-07-01 1951EST

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.

~~~eric

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do

nothing. (Edmund Burke)

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/7/01 5:12:59 PM Pacific Standard Time,

061450@... writes:

<< A senior Bush aide said top advisers were inclined even before Wednesday

to

recommend that Bush keep the street closed.

AP-NY-02-07-01 1951EST

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.

~~~eric

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do

nothing. (Edmund Burke) >>

Thanks. Piper.