White House Shooter Charged With Assault
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – More details emerged Wednesday about a shooting near the White House that prompted security agents to remove President Donald Trump from a press briefing briefly.
Officials said 51-year-old Myron Berryman of Forestville, Maryland, is being charged with assaulting a police officer.
He was shot by a Secret Service officer near the White House on Monday.
Soon after a Security Service agent interrupted President Trump who was talking about the stock markets to reporters in a briefing room.
Trump returned 10 minutes later after it was established that the gunman had not entered the White House premises.
Berryman was listed in stable condition at a local hospital.
Shortly before 6 p.m., according to the Secret Service, Berryman approached a uniformed Secret Service officer standing at his post about a block from the White House grounds.
He allegedly told the officer that he had a weapon and intended to use it.
“The suspect then turned around, ran aggressively towards the officer, and in a drawing motion, withdrew an object from his clothing,” the Secret Service said in a statement. “He then crouched into a shooter’s stance as if about to fire a weapon.”
Berryman was shot twice in the torso, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to comment publicly.
No firearm was found on Berryman, and the official did not identify the object that Berryman pulled from his clothing.
Berryman, who is 6-foot-3, had been a licensed boxer and has lived in Dayton, Ohio; Forrestville, Md.; and, more recently, Wheeling, W.Va, news reports said.
He had been charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct in Prince George’s County in 2012 and sought to take his case to trial, but it ended in a plea in 2013.
Berryman’s sister told media she could not believe her brother would threaten anyone. He is a large man in stature and can appear physically imposing, she said, but she insisted that “he wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“They said he had a weapon? He ran toward him?” This is crazy. He is a man of God. He would not have a weapon, for sure. His weapon is the word of God.”
It was unclear whether he had been participating in protests outside the White House, where demonstrators have gathered regularly since the killing of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police.
An investigation is underway.
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