Caught on Tape: The Increasingly Strange and Worrisome Case of the White House Fence Jumper

When a former Special Forces sniper allegedly jumped over a White House fence and sprinted to the unlocked front doors of President Barack Obama’s private residence Friday night, Secret Service officials initially told the public not to worry: the suspect, they said, had been unarmed. That assessment seems right, except for the whole "unarmed" part.

The first twist in the case came when Secret Service officials acknowledged that Omar J. Gonzalez, a 42-year-old Iraq veteran, was carrying a folding knife with a three and a half inch serrated blade. On Monday, the story changed again, and got even scarier: Assistant U.S. Attorney David Mudd said that a later search of Gonzalez’s car uncovered 800 rounds of ammunition, a machete, and two hatchets.

A federal magistrate ruled Monday that Gonzalez should be held until October 1 because of an unrelated July 19 incident when he was while in possession of two high-powered rifles and four handguns. Mudd, the prosecutor, said that Gonzalez’s weapons and focus on the White House "represented a danger to the president."

That seems debatable; Obama had left the residence before Gonzalez made it over the fence. But that doesn’t make the incident any less unnerving, or any less dramatic. A new video that surfaced on Monday shows Gonzalez racing across the lawn, evading the Secret Service agents that scrambled to apprehend him. Agents reportedly opted not to fire on Gonzalez because his hands were empty and his clothes couldn’t have concealed a large amount of explosives. The failure to stop him quickly — he was the first intruder to ever cross the threshold — has prompted a review of White House security protocol. Obama’s spokesman said that he was "obviously concerned" about the incident, which looks like something ginned up in Hollywood.

Watch the video here: