On Monday, as we reported, President Donald Trump was briefly evacuated from the briefing room at about 5:45 p.m. As he was speaking to the press, an agent came into the room and informed him there had been a shooting outside the White House compound.
BREAKING: President Trump abruptly ends briefing and leaves briefing room. #MTPDaily pic.twitter.com/16ea8WgxTR
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 10, 2020
TRUMP: "There was a shooting outside of the White House and it seems to be very well under control. I would like to thank the Secret Service for doing their always quick & very effective work."https://t.co/Xcds0Mrprv pic.twitter.com/J3ECviOJhC
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 10, 2020
A person who appeared to be unwell was shot by the Secret Service when he allegedly made threatening gestures mimicking a gun.
But turns out there was another incident earlier in the day that the military is just reporting on now.
The Air Force says the UH-1N was from the 1st Helicopter Squadron out of Joint Base Andrews. Its job is to transport VIPs and dignitaries around the D.C. area, but this was only a training mission. USAF photo: pic.twitter.com/qWEaeD79cE
— Pete Muntean (@petemuntean) August 12, 2020
The UH-1N Huey helicopter, assigned to Joint Base Andrews just outside of Washington, D.C., was conducting a routine training flight roughly 1,000 feet above the ground before it was forced to make an emergency landing at an airport in nearby Manassas, Virginia, after being struck by a bullet, an Air Force spokesperson tells U.S. News. The helicopter is assigned to the 1st Helicopter Squadron, which supports the movement of the president and other senior government officials to and from Andrews, where Air Force One is also based.
The FBI dispatched special agents and its Evidence Response Team to the airport after receiving reports about the shooting, its Washington Field Office said in a statement provided to U.S. News. It is currently conducting a joint investigation with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and local law enforcement agencies.
One crew member was injured in the incident. Paramedics treated the injured crew member and took him to the hospital with a non-life threatening injury. The helicopter also was damaged in the shooting.
Now there’s no indication that the two incidents are related, but that might explain why the agents took the extra care of getting the president out of the briefing room that evening. They might have been more on alert because of the shooting in Virginia at the helicopter. That’s a pretty troubling Monday for the security folks involved and let’s hope that the shooting at the helicopter wasn’t meant as an attack. But given the nature of the assignment, it raises the question.
It’s not clear yet who was behind the shooting at the helicopter but the injured crew member has since been released from the hospital.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member