The US Secret Service took five days to realise that a gunman had fired shots at the White House in 2011 while one of President Barack Obama's daughters was inside one of the world's most protected buildings, according to a media report today.
The Washington Post report comes days after a Texas man armed with a knife jumped the White House fence and managed to make his way through the front door before being stopped.
In the 2011 shooting incident, a Secret Service supervisor thought the sharp cracks that rang out that night were backfire from a nearby construction site and ordered officers guarding the executive mansion to "stand down," even though seven bullets had hit the building, The Post reported.
"No shots have been fired," the supervisor called out over the radio.
The authorities later concluded that bullets had indeed been fired by someone in a car along Constitution Avenue outside the White House perimeter, but even then assumed at first that the White House was not necessarily the target.
Only four days later, when a housekeeper found broken glass on the Truman Balcony, did anyone realise the White House had actually been struck, the report said.
A bullet smashed a window on the second floor, just steps from the first family's formal living room. Another lodged in a window frame, and more pinged off the roof, sending bits of wood and concrete to the ground. At least seven bullets struck the upstairs residence of the White House, flying some 700 yards across the South Lawn, the Post reported.
The US Secret Service (USSS) announced publicly at the time that it had taken four days to discover that bullets had hit the White House, and noted the confusion of the evening with conflicting witness reports and a gunman firing from a distance of 700 yards.
The Post reported that president Obama and first lady Michelle were furious. They were both away at the time but their younger daughter, Sasha, and Michelle's mother, Marian Robinson, were home at the time, The Post said. Their other daughter, Malia, arrived home shortly afterward.
Mark Sullivan, then the director of the Secret Service, was summoned to a meeting in which the first lady raised her voice loudly enough that she could be heard through a closed door, the newspaper said.
Spokesmen for the White House and the Secret Service declined to comment on the Post report.
The gunman, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, of Idaho was arrested and charged with attempted assassination. He was sentenced in April to 25 years in prison.
Following the latest intrusion into the White House, Obama had expressed confidence in the Secret Service.
"The Secret Service does a great job. I'm grateful for all the sacrifices they make on my behalf and on my family's behalf," Obama was quoted as saying.
