A 19-year-old has been arrested and charged after crashing a truck into barriers near the White House.
The driver — identified as Sai Varshith Kandula of Chesterfield, Missouri — was arrested on charges of threatening to kill or harm a president, vice president, or family member. He was also charged with assault using a dangerous weapon, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, and trespassing.
Kandula crashed into barriers near Lafayette Park around 1am in a white U-Haul truck. While no one was injured, authorities found a Nazi flag with him upon his arrest.
Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service chief of communications, said in a statement Monday night that "preliminary investigation reveals the driver may have intentionally struck the security barriers." He added: "There were no injuries to any Secret Service or White House personnel and the cause and manner of the crash remain under investigation."
President Biden's exact location at the time was unknown, but he had met with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy around that time at the White House to discuss the debt limit. The nearby Hay Adams hotel was evacuated at the request of Secret Service.
Witness Benjamin Berger told NBC Washington that he had seen the initial crash, and that Kandula backed up and ramemd the barrier a second time.
“I turn around and just see people running away from this U-Haul,” he said. “And then I thought he might have just crashed, or it might have been by accident, but then I saw the vehicle back up and hit it again. So I proceeded to run away as well.”
The truck Kandula was driving was reportedly empty, and did not contain any weapons or explosives. Authorities have yet to comment on the Nazi paraphernalia found.
This story is breaking and will be updated with additional details.
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