A man who was shot by a Secret Service officer near the White House on Monday evening shouted, “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to shoot you,” according to an internal D.C. police report described to The Washington Post by two law enforcement officials.
Those people identified the injured man as Myron Berryman, 51. Police said he remained hospitalized Tuesday in critical but stable condition.
D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said the man is being charged with assault on a police officer.
The shooting occurred about 5:50 p.m. as President Trump was holding a nationally televised news conference. The president was quickly ushered away from the podium.
The Secret Service said the man approached an officer posted near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, about one block from the northwest gate to the White House grounds.
Two officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation said video of the incident shows Berryman reach for something at his waist just before the shooting.
One of those officials, who viewed the video, said it showed Berryman walk past the officer then turn back before moving his hand to his waist and getting into a crouching position. That official said audio also was recorded. It is unclear what words were captured on the recording.
The second person, who was briefed on the video but did not view it, said officials were advised it shows Berryman taking a stance that the officer viewed as threatening.
Thomas Sullivan, the chief of the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service, on Monday night said the man approached the officer and said he had a weapon.
The man ran aggressively toward the officer and withdrew an object from his clothing, Sullivan said. He said the man then crouched in a “shooter’s stance” as if about to fire. The officer shot him, striking him in the torso, Sullivan said.
When Trump returned to the White House briefing room, he told reporters that he understood the person was armed.
Two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation said no weapon was recovered at the scene.
The public version of the D.C. police report on the incident released Tuesday omits references to the shooting and includes a one-sentence narrative indicating the suspect was arrested. In a box titled “Weapon/force involved,” it says the defendant “stated to Officer that he had a gun.”
A Secret Service spokeswoman declined to answer questions Tuesday.
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.
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.
Reached by phone Tuesday morning, Berryman’s sister said 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?” said the sister, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, because she is concerned about the sensitivity of the case. “This is crazy. He is a man of God. He would not have a weapon, for sure. His weapon is the word of God.”
In a brief interview, Berryman’s sister said she was stunned by the news that her brother had been shot outside the White House and said she needed to contact him and her family.
She surmised that he could have 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.
“Myron is always encouraging everybody,” she said. “He has never had anything negative to say. He always encourages people.”
After the incident Monday, Trump returned the podium and told reporters about the shooting outside. He said that he had been escorted to the Oval Office.
Asked whether he had been rattled by the incident, he replied, “I don’t know,” adding, “Do I seem rattled?” He described the shooting as “unfortunate” and said the world has “always been a dangerous place.”
In 2016, a Secret Service officer shot and wounded a Pennsylvania man who the service said walked toward a White House security post on E Street NW with a handgun pointed at the ground.
Police said he ignored officers and was shot in the chest after he raised his left hand. He pleaded guilty to resisting or impeding a law enforcement officer with a dangerous weapon, and a federal judge sentenced him to eight months in prison.
The judge allowed the suspect to serve his time in a hospital to be treated for mental illness.