WASHINGTON — Layer after layer of security measures that were supposed to block an intruder from getting into the White House all failed on the evening of Sept. 19, according to an internal review of a fence jumper’s breach.
There were nearly a dozen failures in the Secret Service’s rings of security that helped Omar Jose Gonzalez, 42, get inside the White House and into the East Room, according to a Department of Homeland Security review, a summary of which was obtained Thursday by The Washington Post.
In one example, a canine handler who was supposed to help chase down and tackle anyone who breached the White House compound was in a van on a personal cellphone call and did not hear any radio traffic about a fence jumper. By the time he and his well-trained attack dog arrived, Gonzalez was already entering the White House front door, the review found.
In another failure, a crisis command center officer who thought he was alerting everyone to an intruder that Friday night didn’t realize his radio wasn’t working properly — meaning his alert was not being broadcast to officers stationed at the White House. Some alarms were also muted.
The end result: Many Secret Service officers were delayed in realizing a person had jumped the fence, and then weren’t sure where he was. Construction on the north grounds obscured many officers’ views.
An officer on the North Portico guarding the front gate did not realize for some time that there was a fence jumper because of “unintelligible traffic over the radio,” the report said. With his gun drawn as he watched Gonzalez run up the steps, the officer let the intruder walk past him because he assumed the front door was locked; it was not.
Lawmakers said Thursday that they were shocked by the depth of the communication and protocol failures. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the agency has already put in place or is in the process of implementing changes to fix the problems highlighted in the report.
