The Secret Service confirms that a man in a “wheelchair style scooter” set himself on fire outside the White House on Friday. He was on the Pennsylvania Avenue side, near the north lawn. (Video from after incident below.)
President Trump was in the White and in a meeting at the time of the incident.
“A male subject operating an electronic wheelchair-type scooter lit his outer jacket on fire while sitting along Pennsylvania Ave. outside the North Fence Line,” the service said in a tweet.
Apparently the guy lit his jacket on fire, but Uniformed Division Officers were all over it, put him out, and gave him first aid.
Here’s video from the scene as the guy is being carted away.
HAPPENING NOW: @SecretService just apprehended man who tried to set himself on fire outside @WhiteHouse agent tells us pic.twitter.com/GvPYEZ8Cnm
— Mark Irons (@MarkIronsMedia) April 12, 2019
There was a brief lockdown at the White House. The guy wasn’t seriously injured, and his motives are not yet known. “The male subject has been transported to a local hospital with what appears to be non-life threatening injuries,” said the Secret Service.