The White House fence-jumper was tackled by an off-duty Secret Service agent who just happened to be walking through the mansion at the time, the Washington Post reported.
It's the latest revelation to come out of the embarrassing security incident, after the Post reported Monday that Omar Gonzalez actually made it deep into the house and was apprehended in the East Room, not near the entrance as the Secret Service initially said.
According to the new report, the off-duty agent had been serving on the security detail for President Barack Obama's daughters and had just seen the first family leave the White House by helicopter moments earlier:
He happened to be walking through the house when chaos broke out and the intruder dashed through the main foyer, according to two people familiar with the incident.[…]
The agent, according to people familiar with the incident, who previously worked as a counter-assault team member, could easily have been outside or on his way home.
No officers are assigned to guard the steps to the Obama family’s private living quarters when the first family is not in the complex.
“There’s no telling how long this guy could have run around if the detail guy hadn’t happened to be there,” one person told the Post.
Read more at the Washington Post.
