A police report says 29-year-old Sean Patrick Keoughan of Roanoke, Virginia, got out of the car at the checkpoint Saturday and was clasping something in his hand when he made the threat. The report says that while he was being taken to the ground he stated: "This is a test."
Keoughan was arrested for making a false bomb threat and unauthorized use of a vehicle. Police in Roanoke said in a statement that the vehicle was stolen Friday and was a rental car.
Military officials today released information that Keoughan served in the Navy for six years, leaving in 2014 as an aviation electronics technician.
Ensign Marc Rockwellpate, a spokesman for the US Navy Office of Information, said he could not release details of Keoughan's discharge because it is private information.
Keoughan's wasn't the only arrest Saturday at the White House. That same day, 58-year-old William Bryant Rawlinson of Silver Spring, Maryland, was arrested on a charge of unlawful entry after jumping a metal barrier just outside a White House fence.